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Online School Admissions is a best portal to find the list of ... Bachpan Play School 4, Mahadji Park,Behind Suyash Hospital, Lashkar ... Bachpan Play School HA-142, D.D. Nagar, Airport Road, Gwalior - 474020, Madhya Pradesh

GWALIOR FORT

PEARL AMONGST THE FORTRESSES OF HIND was how emperor BABAR described it. It is almost 3km length and other structures of over 2000 years. Son et lumerie program in super star AMITABH BACCHAN’s voice is an unforgettable experience.

RANI LAXMI BAI

A symbol of BRAVERY & PATRIOTISM was born in Varanasi & named Manikarnika. Lost her mother at a very tender age & grew near Kanpur where she learnt all martial arts. She was married to Raja of JHANSI. Who was surrounded by traitors & died under mysterious circumstances. However Rani LAXMI BAI continued the fight for INDEPENDENCE & made her supreme sacrifice on Gwalior soil on 18th June 1858.

MRIGNAYANI

While on hunting Raja Mansingh saw a beautiful girl separating two buffaloes locked in horns. He called her MRIGNAYANI. He built a separate palace GUJARI MAHAL on northern foothills of the fort. There a unique aqua duct system to bring water from her village- since it was her pre condition for marriage. She owed her beauty & strength to the water from Rayee which is now submerged under TIGHRA dam in Gwalior.

TANSEN

One of the nine jewels in the court of Emperor Akbar who called him miya TANSEN was THE GREATEST MUSICIAN the country has known. was born dumb in BEHAT near Gwalior. It is said that when he sang RAAG MALAHAR rains would come down & lamps lit up when RAAG DEEPAK was sung. His TOMB is a place for annual music festival

MAHARAJ BADA

The heart of the city has an oval shaped garden with a majestic marble statue of Sir Jiyaji Rao Scindia surrounded by several buildings all of varying ARCHITECTURE. Town Hall – EUROPEAN (like an opera house)
SBI & LIBRARY- ROMAN design,
Post Office- GREEK (Rennaissance Period)
GOVT.PRESS & Market- VICTORIAN period

JAI VILAS PALACE

It is like the palace of Versailles in France & has collection of weapons, antiques, Chippendale furniture & many more items. DARBAR HALL of the palace has walls, furniture, fixture all in gold. The dining hall has a SILVER TRAIN that runs on a big table and carries liquor as its cargo-it was remotely controlled too. Italian Architect Lt. Col. Michael Filose designed it in 1897

ZERO (Shunya)

Gwalior occupies a unique place in human civilization as it is the place which has first known recorded use of ZERO. There is a garden at FORT called CHUTURBHUJ Temple built in 9th C. The area of this garden has measurements with zero used at the end of the figures. Like CYCLE – it is the beginning of everything reaching peak and then ending. It is very essence of the UNIVERSE. With infinite power.

GWALIOR LIGHT RAILWAY

This 2 feet wide Narrow gauge train is over 100 years. It first delighted one and all by its shear speed & Sound. It ran as a circular train covering Morar, Kampoo, Jiwaji Ganj & covered Bhind, Shivpuri, Sheopur (300 km away which is still running) Engine of this train is parked on Gwalior Stn. Ticket to Ghosipura (4KM away) – its first halt- is र 2/- ONLY.

SON CHIRYA

A huge bird found near Gwalior. It is said that it lays its eggs on PARAS (a mythological stone) which when comes in contact with iron turns it to gold. There is a taxidermy of this bird in Municipal Museum.

SACHIN R TENDULKAR

100 centuries in international cricket & innumerable records – That why SACHIN in known as MASTER BLASTER. He has inspired young India to dream big & make them come true. His glorious 200 in ODI was made in GWALIOR. SACHIN & all cricketers prove that its indeed A GENTLEMEN’S GAME

DHYAN CHAND ROOP CHAND

Gwalior has witnessed players like Capt. ROOP SINGH - too good at footwork & powerful hit & brother Maj. Dhyan Chand who mesmerised the crowd with superb dribbling skill. They played the game with great sportsman spirit. Highest lifetime Achievement Award in sports is DHYAN CHAND AWARD.

JAMES SKINNER

1st & 3rd Horse- one of the oldest Regiment of Indian Army was raised by James Skinner. He was of Scottish origin his wife was a Rajput princess. He was great cavalry warrior in 18th C of this area- like Alexander The Great. Sikander Kampoo is named after him. He built St. James Church, Delhi & was buried there. His descendents still live in Sikander Hall estate Mussoorie.

Besides Dhanush and Sonam Kapoor, there's a third, very significant character in Raanjhanaa — the city of Banaras. Director Aanand L Rai says that the city defines the characters and the ambience of the movie. And with that, Raanjhanaa joins a long list of movies that have depicted the glory, beauty and the dark side of Banaras.

MUMBAI: Using his persuasive skills to the hilt, Tony Fernandes, founder and chief executive officer of AirAsia, on Sunday, said Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, will be the chief advisor to AirAsia India, a new venture that Malaysian airline is setting up with the Tatas as investors.
Tata Sons has a 30% stake in AirAsia India, with Arun Bhatia of Telestra Tradeplace owning 21%. I am pleased to announce @ratantata as the chief advisor to the board of AirAsia India. A legend in every sense. Building a powerful team," Fernandes posted on the microblogging site Twitter.
On May 15, AirAsia announced the name of its new CEO Mittu Chandilya, but is still to announce the names of the top management line-up to steer its new venture.

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PATNA: The state unit of BJP on Sunday called for Bihar bandh on Tuesday in protest against the "betrayal of the people" by the Janata Dal(United). It will observe the day as 'Vishwasghat Diwas', said the party spokesman. The party also demanded the resignation of chief minister Nitish Kumar saying he was no more leader of the NDA legislature party.
Dismissed deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Sunday said Nitish was elected leader of the NDA legislature party in 2010 and leaders of both JD(U) and BJP had met governor and submitted a list of legislators supporting NDA.
"Morality demands that Nitish quit as CM and get elected as leader of the JD(U) legislature party, but unfortunately he did not resign. We are studying the technical issues," Modi said.
All the sacked ministers of BJP were present at the party headquarters here when Modi described Sunday as a Black Day for democracy and called for Bihar bandh on Tuesday. He said railways and small vehicles would be exempt from observing bandh.
Modi, without naming Kumar, said, "Since Narendra Modi, a leader from an extremely backward caste and whose father brought him up selling tea, does not belong to a political dynasty, a particular leader of Bihar felt threatened by his emergence... to the extent that he was declared as the natural choice for the top office in the country."
Modi further said the chief minister called a cabinet meeting on Sunday for the first time since 2005.
"There was no emergency. Ministers were woken up from their sleep after midnight to serve notices for the meeting. I, too, received the letter on Sunday morning," Modi said, claiming it was unwarranted since there was no constitutional crisis. Modi also ruled out any attempt by the BJP to stake claim to form a government since his party has only 91 MLAs in the 243-member House.
Senior party leaders like Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj had given clear assurance to Kumar on the party's stand on the PM candidate, but he preferred to ignore them and announced a unilateral break-up, said Modi.

Economists say that for now the RBI will not raise rates to support the currency, which fell to a record low this month. Its emerging market peers Turkey, Brazil and Indonesia, have raised rates to counter capital outflows driven by prospects for tighter monetary policy in the United States.
"A rate cut is a forgotten issue now," said Indranil Pan, chief economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank. "Until they reverse the recent actions, there is no question of rate cuts."
Since the rupee hit a record low of 61.21 per dollar on July 8, the RBI has announced various measures to support the currency, including raising the cost of short-term funding and restricting banks' use of daily cash. The rupee has recovered over 1 percent since but still faces pressure from a record current account deficit.
So far in 2013, the RBI has cut the main policy rate, the overnight repo rate, three times to 7.25 percent to support an economy struggling with its weakest growth in a decade.
The RBI is unlikely to signal further rate cuts because that could undermine the rupee further. Indeed, it might present a hawkish tone to further bolster the currency's prospects. However, a rise in bank reserves is seen as unlikely since its cash tightening measures ramped up the overnight call rate to more than 10 percent.
"Yes, exchange rate stability is the focus now and that will hurt growth in the short-term," said a central bank official, who declined to be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Rajesh and Nupur Talwar Friday dropped a second defence witness in the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case.
Masuma Jha, a resident of Sector 29 in Noida, would not be able to appear in court as her husband was in hospital; hence she was being withdrawn as a witness, the Talwars said in their "oral" application.
The court of Additional Sessions Judge Shyam Lal subsequently dropped Jha as a defence witness.
"Jha's husband is in hospital for a few days, so she cannot depose before the trial court.
"We today asked court to drop her as a defence witness... the court accepted our request," said Manoj Sisodia, a counsel for the Talwars.
Pursuant to a July 19 Allahabad High Court order, CBI today produced before the trial court copies of a sound simulation test and a worksheet of DNA analysis of certain exhibits belonging to domestic help Hemraj and to their compounder, Krishna.
A copy of these reports was also provided to the Talwars, who are standing trial for the murder of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj on the intervening night of May 15-16, 2008.
CBI also produced a tabular chart of analysis of the above exhibits before the special CBI court.
The Talwars had moved high court to have these reports be put on court record.
The court today fixed July 30 as next date of hearing in the case.
On July 30, statements from the nodal officers of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone would be recorded after Talwars named them as defence witnesses.
The Talwars had on July 16 dropped another defence witness, carpenter Mahender Sharma, saying he doesn't want to depose in the case due to "pressure from CBI".

David Miller hit a career-best 85 not out and fast bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe picked up four wickets Friday as South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 56 runs in the third one-day international to trail 2-1 in the five-match series.
Miller hit five sixes and four boundaries during his 72-ball innings at No. 7, sharing an unbroken 69-run stand with Ryan McLaren for the eighth wicket to steer South Africa to 223-7 after it had slumped to 154-7.

After Raj Babbar and Rasheed Masood, Now Union minister for new and renewable energy farrq Abdullah Friday has said that one can have full meal for rs.1 '' One can eat Rs.1 if desired .It depends on the common man how much they cam afford and the have to man said on the ongoing debate on poverty

Aligarh: The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) administration has withdrawn its order, issued earlier this week, that asked the students residing in one of its women's hostels to wear "proper and decent-looking dresses, i.e. salwar kameez with dupatta, both in or outside the hostel".
The order, signed by the Provost of Abdullah Hall for Girls, also asked the women to keep only one mobile phone and avoid eating out by making sure they enter the details of their movement in a register kept outside the hostels.
Any violation of the "norms" may invite disciplinary action, including a fine of Rs. 500, the order said.

PATNA: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has released sketches of five suspects in the July 7 serial bomb explosions at Bodh Gaya's Mahabodhi temple in Bihar.
The sketches, including one of a foreigner, have been distributed among the public, particularly rickshaw-pullers, auto-rickshaw drivers and local civic body members, police said Tuesday.
"NIA officials have sought information about the suspects," a police official said.
NIA has also given five telephone numbers on which people can provide information. "NIA has assured it would not reveal the identity of those giving information," he said.
In mid-July, the NIA released two sketches of one of the suspects.

The BSE Sensex was trading flat in pre-noon trade on Tuesday, up just 2.37 points, or 0.01 per cent, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) left all key policy rates unchanged.
Weighed down by a weak rupee, the central bank in its monetary policy review earlier in the day decided to keep the repo rate and cash reserve ratio unchanged at 7.25 per cent and 4 per cent respectively. The bank also lowered the GDP growth projection for the current fiscal to 5.5 per cent from 5.7 per cent.
The 30-share index of the Bombay Stock Exchange was trading at 19,595.65 points in the pre-noon session, up 2.37 points, or 0.01 per cent, from its previous close.
The 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was trading down 1.60 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 5,830.05 points.
Some positive buying was observed in IT and capital goods sectors, while selling pressure was seen in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), auto and metal sectors.
The S&P BSE IT index moved up by 87.85 points and capital goods index increased by 71.97 points; while auto index dropped by 87.83 points, FMCG index slipped by 72.64 points and metal index went down by 48.66 points.

Poor Rahul Gandhi. A man damned by comparison, forever failing to measure up to the towering standards set by Narendra Modi. Each failure, in turn, serves as further confirmation of his image as a milquetoast wannabe. The latest is his speech in Barana, Rajasthan, which has been proclaimed by the media as a giant yawn. “This was the first public rally of Rahul Gandhi after Narendra Modi was declared the prime ministerial candidate for the BJP. Just a few days before on Sunday September 15, Modi did a huge rally in Haryana. The comparison between Modi and Congress heir apparent was unavoidable. But barring one or two occasions, Rahul Gandhi failed to connect with the crowd the way Modi did in Haryana on Sunday,” reports India Today.

Ranchi: A 12-year-old girl who was allegedly raped in Jharkhand's Koderma district and threatened repeatedly by her attacker's family, has committed suicide, say the police.
The Class 8 student reportedly consumed pesticide last night.
The girl and her family were allegedly under intense pressure from the family of the accused who demanded that the rape charges be dropped, the police said.
On September 9, the girl was allegedly taken away on her way to tuition classes by the accused, who stays in the same village, and raped.
After she told her family, the accused man, who is from the same village, was reportedly caught and beaten by locals and handed over to the police.
"The family of the accused came to us and demanded that we compromise. They also said we should let our daughter marry him," said the girl's mother. "They threatened to frame us with false charges."
"We have lost our daughter forever. We only want justice now, the accused should be hanged," said a relative of the girl.

Wed Sep 18, 2013 1:09pm IST. Reuters Market Eye - The rupee is trading at 63.15/16 versus its Tuesday's close of 63.37/38, tracking losses in the dollar versus most other Asian currencies but choppiness is likely to prevail ahead of the U.S.

NEW DELHI: Microsoft has revamped its search engine Bing by incorporating features such as social search options, 'page zero' tool and adaptability across devices in an effort to better compete with rival Google.
The software giant has also unveiled a new golden orange logo for the Bing.
"It is designed to 'instantly feel at home alongside all Microsoft products', reflecting the growing presence of Bing across Microsoft's various devices and services," said Scott Erickson, a senior director on the Bing brand team, in a blog post.

NEW DELHI: The testimony of London-based forensic expert Dr Andre Semikhodski in Aarushi-Hemraj murder trail continued in Ghaziabad court on Tuesday. Semikhodski told the court that since the exhibits had been handled by several persons, it was inadvisable to carry out DNA examination on them.
Semikhodski told the court of additional sessions judge Shyam Lal, "Since these exhibits have been touched by several persons on several occasions without gloves during investigation, it will not be advisable to conduct DNA analysis on these exhibits and the results may be misleading and can implicate innocent persons, thus causing miscarriage of justice.

Rohtak: In a suspected case of honour killing, a couple have allegedly been lynched in Haryana on Wednesday. This came after they left their village to reportedly get married. After the couple reportedly left their village in the Rohtak district on Tuesday to get married, the girl's family contacted them and persuaded them to come home. They assuring the couple that they would not be harmed. But the two were instead murdered. DSP Anil Kumar has said that upon returning to their village the girl's family lynched then cremated their daughter and subsequently broke the boy's arms and legs, finally beheading him before throwing his body in front of his house.
The two, who were good friends and studied together in a college in Rohtak, were missing since Tuesday, sparking rumours of their marriage, police officers said adding families of both the victims have fled their homes and raids were being conducted to trace their whereabouts.

Lucknow: A group of BJP politicians, who have been linked to the deadly communal riots in Muzaffarnagar in Western Uttar Pradesh, were not present in the state legislature today. Arrest warrants have been issued against two of them.
Police sources tell NDTV that to avoid triggering a backlash among supporters of the leaders, they will wait till the assembly session ends on Friday to make any arrests.
Nearly 50 people were killed and 40,000 displaced by the Hindu-Muslim violence that tore through Muzaffarnagar earlier this month.
Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti has warned of "more tension" if any of her party men were arrested. Arrest warrants have also been issued for leaders from other parties including the Congress and BSP for making incendiary speeches in the region. Not one has been arrested so far. (Arrest us and see what happens, BJP's Uma Bharti warns Akhilesh Yadav)

Stocks and currencies in emerging markets led an Asian rally Thursday following a surprise decision by the US Federal Reserve to keep its massive stimulus programme intact.
The announcement to hold off winding down its $85 billion a month bond-buying fuelled a buying spree on Wall Street, sending the Dow and S&P 500 to record highs.
And Asia took up the baton Thursday, with under-pressure developing economies breathing a sigh of relief after suffering a heavy sell-off in August as investors bet on the Fed tightening its monetary policy.
The BSE Sensex spurted over 574 points to 20,536.29 in early trade on Thursday on sustained buying by funds and retail investors, triggered by strengthening rupee and a firming trend overseas after the US Federal Reserve decided to keep its stimulus programme intact.
The 30-share index, which had gained nearly 230 points in the past three sessions, rose further by 574.13 points, or 2.88%, to 20,536.29 points with banking, realty, capital goods and auto sector stocks leading the rally.
The broad-based NSE Nifty also moved up 183.65 points, or 3.11%, to 6,083.10.

SP, BSP members spar after Akhilesh cites home ministry data to say maximum riots took place under BSP regime in 2007-08
Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said his government would have to work round-the-clock to improve the law and order situation to bring about development in Uttar Pradesh.
“We will have to work on the law and order situation regularly to bring the state on the top of the list of developed states. If the situation is not improved, those willing to invest will turn away from UP,” said chief minister while replying to a debate on the first supplementary demands of grants for 2013-2014 that he tabled in the state assembly on Wednesday.
After the chief minister’s address, the state assembly passed the Uttar Pradesh Appropriation (Supplementary 2013-2014) Bill, 2013, that provided for the supplementary grants of Rs. 7112.39 crore to the state government.
The chief minister quoted figures of the union home ministry to make his point that the maximum number of riots took place in the state during the BSP government’s tenure in 2007-2008.
The chief minister said these were not the figures of the state government and the BSP leaders may verify the data from the union home ministry.
At this point, leader of opposition Swami Prasad Maurya rose from his seat to counter the chief minister’s observations. A heated exchange was witnessed between the BSP and the ruling party members with minister for parliamentary affairs Mohammad Azam Khan, saying that the leader of opposition should learn to respect the office of leader of the House (the chief minister) and not cause obstruction in the address.

Bhopal, Sep 20 (PTI) As soaring onion prices bring tears to the eyes of consumers, Madhya Pradesh government has refuted the charges of Delhi government that the state was hoarding the staple vegetable, leading to its price upsurge.
Onion prices going north is becoming a major election issue in the state, slated to go for polls around the year end.

A married woman who has alleged rape by a Rajasthan minister underwent a medical examination at a hospital in Jaipur on Thursday and escorted investigators to the crime scene, police said. The minister, who has resigned, refuted the allegation. The woman, who two days back claimed Minister of State for Dairy and Rural Industries Babu Lal Nagar raped her, was taken to Sawai Man Singh Hospital for the medical test, police said. "A board of three doctors carried out the examination and handed over its report to police. The report is being examined," a police officer said.
We also took the woman to the minister's residence in Civil Lines area where the alleged rape took place. The woman helped the investigating team physically verify the crime scene," he said. The officer added that the woman's statement will also be recorded before a magistrate. Earlier, Nagar told reporters that he sent in his resignation letter to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's office to let police conduct a free and fair probe. A first information report (FIR) was on Tuesday registered against Nagar at the Sodala police station. Nagar claimed innocence and alleged he was being framed in "a political conspiracy". "My house was swarming with people on September 11, the day when the woman says she was raped. I was not alone even for a minute," said Nagar. Nagar represents the Dudu constituency in Ajmer district in the state assembly. A police officer said the woman recently approached a court which directed police to register the FIR against the minister.

It will be her first birthday celebration post marriage. This time, Kareena will be joining hubby Saif in the English capital, where he is shooting for his next film.
Although Bebo’s personal and marital life is rocking, at the professional front too, she has been grabbing lot of meaty and promising film projects. The newest film to fall in her kitty is Karan Johar’s ‘Shuddhi’ co-starring Hrithik Roshan.
This year she will back on screen with her ‘Ek Main Aur Ek Tu’ co-star Imran Khan in Punit Malhotra’s ‘Gori Tere Pyaar Mein’.
Kareena made her presence felt at the launch of her debut book ‘Style Diary of a Bollywood Diva’ and also sizzled in Prakasha Jha’s multi-starrer ‘Satyragraha’. And we certainly hope to see more of her on screen in the months to come. Here’s wishing the beautiful Kareena a super duper birthday!

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev was on Friday detained and questioned at Heathrow Airport for over six hours by British customs officials.
There was lack of clarity over the reason for his detention at the airport.
According to one of the organisers of the function Ramdev is here to attend, he was questioned on books he was carrying which were in Hindi and Sanskrit. The officials detained Ramdev for over six hours before he was allowed to go.
However, a source said, Ramdev was questioned by customs officials as he came here on a visitor visa instead of a business visa.
Some media reports also said that Ramdev was questioned about certain medicines he was carrying with him.
Ramdev's spokesman SK Tejarawala described as "baseless" the claims that he was questioned on carrying some medicines.
"It was not clear why the Yoga guru was detained for over six hours at Heathrow. He was not carrying anything with him except a small bag of personal effects. It is for the British authorities to explain why he was detained," Tejarawala told PTI.
He said Ramdev has been cleared to go into the city.
Ramdev went to London to attend the function organised by the Patanjali Yogpeeth on the 120th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda in the next couple of days.

Muzaffarnagar: Sangeet Som, the BJP MLA accused of circulating a fake video that escalated the unrest that resulted in the riots in Muzaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh on September 7, has said he has decided to surrender.
Speaking to reporters in Meerut, Mr Som rejected the allegations against him and added that he decided to surrender after he came to know that he was likely to be arrested by the police today. "I am a peace loving man. It's a fake case anyway, he said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called for a bandh in western Uttar Pradesh on Monday to protest against the arrest of its MLA Suresh Rana, who has been accused of inciting the Hindu-Muslim tension that left nearly 50 people dead and 40,000 homeless in Muzaffarnagar earlier this month.
BJP President Rajnath Singh is likely to visit the riot-hit town today. NDTV has learnt that the police have requested him to cancel his plan contending that the situation in the village where he intends to go is still tense. If he refuses, sources say, they are likely to stop him.

Former Army chief General VK Singh is under scrutiny after an Indian Express report that an Army probe said Singh tried to topple the Jammu and Kashmir government. The Defence Ministry has admitted to getting the Army report but has not confirmed its contents. The BJP is questioning the timing as this comes just days after Gen VK Singh shared the dais with their prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

If the new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan’s first policy statement is any indication, those saying he would go by New Delhi’s diktats on policymaking will now have egg on their faces. Rajan’s first policy announcement of 20 September proves the new governor is very much his own man and will go by the demands of monetary policy and not hesitate to take steps which may even be unpopular. By hiking the LAF repo rate – the rate at which RBI lends short-term funds to banks – by 25 basis points and surprising the markets and policywatchers, Rajan has signaled that while growth may be falling and some semblance of order has returned to the foreign exchange markets, inflation continues to be the central bank’s enemy number one and he would leave no stone unturned to fight it. While CPI came in at 9.5 percent , August wholesale price inflation was at a rather uncomfortable 6.1 percent, driven by food inflation.

Four police officials and two civilians were killed in a terror attack at Hiranagar in Kathua district, about 50km from Jammu city, early Thursday morning.
Agencies and TV channels report a Lt Colonel, the commanding officer of an army unit, and a soldier were killed in the attack in Samba. Hindustan Times couldn't independently confirm this.
The terrorists first attacked the Hiranagar police station around 6.45am and then entered an army camp in the adjoining Samba district where an encounter is underway.

Gujarat Chief Minister and the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, told members of the Kerala state unit that the political climate in the country was favourable to the BJP and they should work together to take advantage of the climate.
Addressing party workers on Wednesday evening here, he called on them to exploit the socio-political situation in Kerala. Urging a fight against corruption, Mr Modi said though the BJP does not have representation in the Kerala Assembly, the potential of the Right to Information Act should be used to fight corruption and claiming the rights of the downtrodden.
Mr Modi, who is on a two-day visit to Kerala, left for Kollam on Thursday morning to participate in the 60th birthday celebrations of Mata Amritanandamayi. Earlier, he visited the Padmanabha Swamy temple and called on the Travancore Royal family at the Kaudiar Palace.
Speaking to party workers, Mr Modi said the youth were angry about corruption and the potential of social media should be used for the election campaign. He claimed that 72 per cent of new jobs were now being created in Gujarat. Setting out the Gujarat government’s plans to set up a ‘statue of unity’ sculpture of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, he said farmers should contribute iron from their used implements for the statue.
State BJP leaders told Mr. Modi, that the party could win in Kerala if community organisations such as the NSS and the SNDP extended support.
Mr. Modi suggested that leaders should come up from Kerala to the national level so that issues of concern to the State could be raised at the national level. BJP national leaders Ram Lal and Bandaru Dattatreya, State president V. Muraleedharan, O. Rajagopal, P. S. Sreedharan Pillai, P. K. Krishnadas, K. Surendran and other leaders attended.
Earlier, he presented Rs. 5 lakh from the BJP’s central funds to the family of Indo-Tibetan Border Police constable P. G. Jomon who was killed during rescue operations in Uttarakhand.
Keywords: Narendra Modi, BJP prime ministerial candidate, Lok Sabha polls 2014, Kerala visit, Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple, BJP office-bearers

NEW DELHI: It seems after witnessing the craze for the recently launched gold editions of the iPhone 5S, Samsung has also decided to tread the golden path. The South Korean smartphone giant has announced that it is bringing in two gold colour models of its flagship smartphone Galaxy S4.
Twitter accounts of the Samsung Arabia and Samsung Gulf tweeted pictures of the two models, one brown gold in colour and the other pink gold. Official Twitter accounts posting these photos suggests that Samsung would be releasing these models in the Middle East in the first phase, and then perhaps roll them out to other markets, depending on their initial response.
Samsung's latest move comes barely a week after media reports came in of the gold colour iPhones being a hot favourite in the market with most of the supplies being sold out in China, Hong Kong, US and other major markets. As per reports, a scarcity of gold iPhones saw people selling the variant for over $1,000 on eBay, much higher than the $649 base retail price.

Washington: The Sikh-American community has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to raise the issue of increasing attacks on the community members in the US with President Barack Obama during their meeting on Friday.
"This is the best time for Prime Minister of India to raise the issues and concerns of the USA Sikh community during the meeting with President Obama," the North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) said in a statement on the eve of Singh's arrival here.
Referring to a series of recent attacks on the Sikhs, NAPA said this is very unfortunate that attacks on the Sikh Americans are growing every passing day.
"There seems no end of these attacks," it said in a statement.
In a recent attack, a Sikh professor at the Columbia University was attacked and injured in New York by a mob of up to 30 people who called him "Osama" and "terrorist" during a brutal assault which the police is investigating as a hate crime last week.

MUMBAI: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd was at an all-time high of 587 rupees on Thursday on hopes of higher sales of its key cancer drug, Doxil, after innovator Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc, a unit of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said on Wednesday the drug will likely be in short supply in the coming weeks.
The expected shortage in supply is due to an interruption from the company's own supplier, Ben Venue Laboratories Inc, J&J said.
J&J cannot provide an estimate of when the cancer drug would be available again and has advised healthcare providers to contact Sun Pharma.

India's benchmark bond yield dropped as much as 10 basis points in opening trade on Thursday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) assured it would provide liquidity to the market and also undertake open market operations if necessary.
The benchmark 10-year bond yield was down 11 basis points on the day at 8.68 per cent by 09.05 a.m.
The partially convertible rupee rose to 62.13 per dollar versus its close of 62.44/45 on Wednesday, after the RBI eased norms for providing swaps to banks that are borrowing funds overseas.
The Reserve Bank of India late on Wednesday relaxed the minimum maturity tenure for banks' foreign currency borrowings' to one year from three years, in order to use the central bank's swap facility which was set up to support the ailing rupee.
The Reserve Bank of India said on Wednesday it will take action, including conducting open market operations, to ensure adequate liquidity is available in the banking system, acknowledging that liquidity conditions have been tightening.

NEW YORK: While the iPhone 5S includes a handful of new features that set it apart from Apple's previous model, the actual cost to make the phone hasn't changed very much, according to a new study.
An IHS teardown of the new smartphone found that the components that make up a 16GB iPhone 5S cost $190.70. Manufacturing costs add another $8, bringing the total production cost to $198.70.
In comparison, the iPhone 5, which hit the market a year ago, cost $197 to make.
Andrew Rassweiler, IHS' senior director for cost benchmarking services, noted that the 5S includes features new to the smartphone world, such as a 64-bit apps processor and a fingerprint identification sensor, without a significant jump in costs.
The research firm also dissected a 16-gigabyte iPhone 5C, a cheaper version of the 5S, and put its total production cost at $173.45, including $7 in manufacturing costs.
Rassweiler said the 5C is basically an iPhone 5 wrapped in plastic, noting that it has basically the same features, but benefits from typical component price drops, along with its cheaper plastic enclosure.
The 5C has a starting sticker price of $549, but will sell for $99 with a two-year wireless contract. It's Apple's least-expensive iPhone ever and is an effort to boost sales in China and other areas where people don't have as much money to spend on new gadgets as they do in the US and Europe. But critics have said that the phone is still too expensive to sell well in emerging markets.
IHS said that while it costs substantially less to produce an iPhone 5C than it did an iPhone 5, those costs are still on the high side.
It added that in order to merit the low-end smartphone pricing of $400 that many industry observers had expected, while maintaining typical Apple profit margins, the company would need to reduce its 5C production costs to about $130.
Monday Apple reported that it sold 9 million of the two new models since their launch on Friday - its strongest iPhone launch ever - and that demand was exceeding supply.
In midday trading, shares of the Cupertino, California, company slipped $5.98 t

NEW DELHI: You may soon be able to retain your number even if you shift base to any other city across the country. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday recommended that mobile number portability (MNP) — which currently allows you to retain your number when you change operators within the same city — be implemented across India over the next six months, thus allowing a subscriber to have the same number even when he/she shifts base to another service area.
The issue of allowing one-number across the country was first raised in the National Telecom Policy 2012 and thereafter the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had in December last year told Trai to firm up policy recommendations. Trai's recommendations will now be taken up by DoT that will propose a final roadmap on the national mobile number portability (MNP) rollout. Trai debated the matter threadbare and had sought views of various stakeholders on the manner of national MNP rollout. Also, it looked into the amendments that need to made in existing regulations to enable its rollout. "The DoT may carry out the necessary changes in the existing MNP licence," Trai said in its recommendations.

Zee Media Bureau/Deepak Nagpal
New Delhi: In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court on Friday gave the citizens of India the right to reject all candidates in elections.
Hearing a petition filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties, an NGO, the apex court ruled that the Electronic Voting Machines or EVMs should have a button that will allow the voters to choose "none of the above" option.
The bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that voters should be allowed to reject all candidates standing in an election in his/her constituency.
"Negative voting would foster purity and vibrancy in elections," the court said.
"Negative voting would lead to systemic change in polls and political parties will be forced to project clean candidates," the bench added.
"If right to vote is statutory right, right to reject candidate is fundamental right of speech and expression under Constitution," the court stated further.

With the death of Leela Chavda (60), who was admitted to JJ hospital in a serious condition, the building collapse in Mumbai has claimed two lives and left nine injured.
According to the National Disaster Response Force, 110 people are still trapped in the building.
About 25 people were believed to be trapped as a 5 storey building near Dockyard Road railway station collapsed around 6 am on Friday morning.
Reports suggest that the building, which was on the eastern side of the railway station, was sent a notice for being in a dilapidated condition.
It was a BMC colony and 20-25 people were believed to be trapped in the building.

Zee Media Bureau
Washington: Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who is currently in the United States on a two-day official visit to attend the UN General Assembly session, will meet President Barack Obama at the White House on Friday.
During the much-anticipated meeting, the two leaders area expected to discuss a wide range of issues, including terrorism emanating from Pakistan, bilateral trade, LoC killings and cooperation on nuclear issus.
Their meeting comes a day after two audacious terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, in which 13 people, including a Lieutenant Colonel of the Army, were killed.
The Prime Minister, who arrived here on Thursday with an intent of deepening the bilateral strategic partnership, said that India needs US on its side at a time when added thrust is being given to developmental programmes back home.
Singh and Obama will review the status of the relationship and chart a course for the future, particularly in the areas of defence, security, trade and investment and civil nuclear cooperation.
India's concerns over the proposed changes in the US visa norms will be flagged by the Prime Minister as these are going to hurt the Indian IT persons.
This will be the third Summit meeting between the two leaders and they will look at ways to add content to the ties.
On his arrival here, Singh described the US as an "important strategic partner" and noted that the two countries have taken several steps to widen and deepen this partnership in diverse ways.
During this visit, the two sides will review the progress that has been made and also what further can be done to give "added meaning and content to this partnership," he told reporters at the Andrews Air Force Base where he was received by acting deputy chief of protocol Rosemarie Pauli.
"The United States is one of our most important strategic partner and during President Obama's regime, we have taken several steps to widen and deepen this partnership in diverse fields. And during the present visit, we will review the progress that has been made and also what further can be done to give added meaning and content to this partnership," Singh said.
He said US is one of India's most important trading partners, important provider of investment and technology support for India's development and "we need the United States on our side as we move to give new added thrust to our development programmes."
The Prime Minister said during his meeting with Obama, the two sides will review the international situation, particularly with regard to international economic situation, situation in the region, South East Asia, the Middle East, West Asia and in all these areas.

Washington: Trailblazer Sri Srinivasan was today sworn in as judge of the second most powerful court of the United States, making him the first Indian American to be on the bench of the US Courts of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Chandigarh-born Srinivasan, 46, whose parents migrated to the United States in 1970s, was sworn in the oath of office in an overflowing court room of US Courts of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, in presence of legal luminaries, friends and families.
Gursharan Kaur, the wife of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was present on the occasion when Srinivasan took the oath of office on the Gita with his mother Saroja Srinivasan holding the holy book for him.
Gursharan Kaur, literally drive off directly from the airport, with a brief stopover at the hotel, to be in time for the swearing in ceremony of the Indian American. It was in May this year that Srinivasan was confirmed by the US Senate by a huge 97-0 vote.
He is the first South Asian American to serve as a circuit court judge in American history.
The retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor who administered the oath of office called Srinivasan “fair, faultless and fabulous.”
He once clerked for her.
Addressing the gathering, Srinivasan acknowledged the contribution of his parents and family on his achievements. Srinivasan was first nominated by Obama on June 11, 2012.
On January 2, his nomination was returned to the President, due to the sine die adjournment of the Senate. On January 3, 2013, Obama re-nominated him for the same office.
His appointment is a testimony to his credibility and calibre as a brilliant legal luminary of the US. Srinivasan was previously the Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States.
He is a highly-respected appellate advocate who has spent a distinguished career litigating before the US Supreme Court and the US Courts of Appeals, both on behalf of the United States and in private practice.

Finnish handset maker Nokia on Thursday unveiled its much-awaited 41 megapixel camera phone Lumia 1020, which will be available in stores across India starting October 11.
Though the company did not reveal the price of the handset yet, it is being sold for almost $800 (Rs 48,000) in the other parts of the world.
The handset offers a second generation 41 megapixel sensor and optical image stabilisation (OIS).
“Consumers are increasingly demanding a high quality smartphone camera that they can rely on to capture and share their lives. The Nokia Lumia 1020 is the first smartphone which also exceeds many standalone digital cameras for quality,” Vipul Mehrotra, director - smartphone devices, Nokia India, Middle East and Africa, said.
The device is equipped with leading hardware technology combined with a new application called Nokia Pro Camera, which makes it easy for anyone to take professional quality images.
Either before a picture is taken or after it has been shot, the zoom capability enables people to shoot first and then zoom later to discover and rediscover stories that contain more detail than the eye can see, the company said.
The handset has a dual capture feature which simultaneously takes a high resolution 38 megapixel image for endless editing opportunities.
“The response to the Nokia Lumia range in India has been extremely encouraging,” said P Balaji, managing director, Nokia India. “The 1020 is a stunning device with imaging capabilities like no other smartphone. We believe it will further strengthen Nokia’s leadership in imaging, which today plays a pivotal role in the lives of consumers,” he said.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan may have given her nod to Gaurang Doshi's film Happy Anniversary to be directed by adman Prahlad Kakkar, but the actress seems to have strangely forgotten something. To jog your memory, in 2007 it was widely reported that Ash had walked out of Doshi's project which was then called Happy Birthday. She took this step after he was allegedly accused of physically assaulting his ex-girlfriend starlet Flora Saini.
Flora had found an unlikely supporter in the midst of her ordeal in B-Town's leading star. Ash had apparently taken the stance after working in Jagmohan Mundra's 2006 film Provoked that tackled domestic abuse. After playing a victim on screen, she had decided against being part of Doshi's film as he was involved in a domestic violence case. The film was to have John Abraham as Ash's co-star.
Interestingly, Doshi had even admitted at that time that due to his problems with Flora, Aishwarya decided not be part of his project. The filmmaker had claimed that there were certain forces working against him as he was at that time also going through a bitter divorce. Says a source, "Aishwarya's nod to his project now has come as a surprise. She may have agreed to be part of it due to her association with director Prahlad Kakkar. But she seems to have forgotten her past decisions."
After being embroiled in a legal tussle, Doshi makes a comeback in Bollywood with the Ash film that will also apparently star her husband Abhishek Bachchan. Doshi's earlier productions include Aankhen and Deewar Let's Bring Home The Heroes which starred Amitabh Bachchan. According to Aishwarya's spokesperson however, "Prahlad's script is among the many scripts she has given her nod to. But it is very preliminary for the producer to jump the gun and announce it as her comeback film."

On Thursday, Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni was at his blasting best as he slammed 63 runs off 19 balls to take the CSK team to a mammoth 202/4 in 20 overs.
The 32-year-old who has been sporting a new hair cut in this series looked like his new cut was suiting him as his form on his home ground testified.
The 50, Dhoni slammed off just 16 balls is the fastest in the Champions League T20.
Sunrisers Hyderabad have their work cut out as they look to chase the score.
In the 18th over, Dhoni went on a six hitting spree as he hit 5 sixes and a four in a Thisara Perera over.
Prior to Dhoni, West Indian duo Kieron Pollard scored a 50 off 18 balls and Chris Gayle slammed 50 off 20 balls.
Dhoni seems to be on the right path leading the team by example as they look to win another CL T20 title as the shadow of the IPL betting scam off the field falls on the team.
Twitter was buzzing with appreciation for Dhoni's efforts. Here are a few interesting tweets,

The Indian rupee strengthened by another 24 paise to 61.83 against the American currency in the late morning trade on persistent selling of dollars by banks and exporters.
Sustained capital inflows from foreign funds into equity market also boosted the rupee sentiment, a forex dealer said.
The rupee resumed higher at 61.90 per dollar as against the last closing level of 62.07 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market and hovered in a range of 61.81-62 per dollar before quoting at 61.83 at 1040hrs, showing a gain of 24 paise from its last close.
In New York, the U.S. dollar rose against major rivals yesterday after weekly jobless claims fell unexpectedly, but gains were muted amid fiscal uncertainty in Washington.
Meanwhile, crude oil prices eased in Asian trade today after the United States and Russia agreed on a draft UN Security Council resolution on destroying Syria’s chemical arms, analysts said.
The Indian benchmark sensex was trading lower by 64.53 pts or 0.32 pct to 19,829.32 at 1120hrs.
Keywords: Forex markets, US Dollar, Indian Rupee

NEW DELHI: Even in extremely tense moments, Prime Minister Mamohan Singh displays minimum emotion. But on Friday he would've steeled himself ahead of meeting Barack Obama, knowing his every nuance is under scrutiny.
The test is all the more severe on foreign soil amid hectic international engagements that include an encounter with Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif in the wake of escalating terror strikes and opposition attacks.
If Rahul Gandhi's remarks amount to public humiliation for the PM and his government, Singh will take care not to let it show. Congress president Sonia Gandhi's soothing words must be helping his efforts. She called him to reassure the party's support. Sources said the call was to assuage any hurt.
Even Rahul, in his letter to the PM written today, emphasized his respect for Singh and his leadership.
The Congress decision to release contents of the letter pointed to damage control efforts against the backdrop of the rising perception that the Congress vice-president's dramatic performance was a direct humiliation of the PM's office.
The letter from the Congress vice-president was meant to emphasize that his defiance was over a matter of principle rather than disrespect the Prime Minister.
Statements released on Singh's behalf from the US indicate that the attempt was succeeding. A reference to Rahul having written to him and the promise that the Cabinet will consider his views on Singh's return don't signal defiance or a bruised ego.
The manner Rahul rubbished the ordinance to help convicted legislators far surpassed the tongue lashings CPM boss Prakash Karat handed out to Singh over the nuclear deal with the US during UPA-1.
The incident shreds what remains of Singh's prime ministerial authority - already eroded by scams ranging from Commonwealth Games to Coalgate. Many of his Cabinet colleagues apparently resent PMO directions.
But the stiffest cost the PM will pay is in the eyes of the public that has in the past seen him as a PLU, a man who enshrines middle class values of hard work and honesty.
Singh, increasingly seen as a leader who failed to check corruption, will find his esteem further lowered by Rahul's actions. Not too long ago, Singh would have been expected to stand up to such an ordinance rather than swimming with the political class.
The alacrity with which Congress ministers - including many who didn't bat an eyelid in ratifying the ordinance in the Cabinet - raced to greet Rahul's criticism of the government can only have made matters worse.
It was left to Sanjaya Baru, a former media advisor to the PM, to bat for Singh, saying Rahul's remarks smacked of insubordination and that Singh must immediately quit. The consensus in Congress is that Singh is unlikely to do so. In fact, Baru himself said the PM has the ability to take knocks on his chin.
The PM's dilemma could be acute. On the one hand, trashing of the ordinance is a public insult. But throwing a fit over defending the rights of convicted legislators is hardly a noble cause. It does not seem an attractive option.
Till now, differences between Congress's first family and the government have been carefully managed. Sonia Gandhi has ensured that no slight is ever offered to the PM and scrupulously stuck to protocol.
Only recently, on UPA-2's fourth anniversary, Sonia praised Singh for remaining dignified in the face of vitriolic opposition attacks. She has always emphasized that Singh will complete his term.
Rahul, too, has been deferential. Asked a few months ago about his then impending new party responsibilities, he said it would be up to his "two bosses" - Sonia and Singh.
The PM reciprocated, dismissing suggestions that he and Sonia are not on the same page over legislation like food security and land acquisition. On Rahul, Singh went to the extent of saying he is ready to work under the leader.
Genuflection to 10 Janpath hardly evokes comment in Congress. It is pretty much the done thing. The PM is unlikely to misread the mood in his party. But he may hold a grouse that the ordinance isn't his brainchild and he had gone along with what Congress wanted. This is, as far as can be ascertained, what happened.

NEW DELHI: Voters will soon have the liberty to summarily reject all candidates in the fray in Indian elections and exercise this option in secrecy at the mere press of a button on electronic voting machines. There will be an option to choose 'None of the Above' (NOTA) on the voting machines, the Supreme Court has ruled, radically altering the dynamics of electoral choice in the world's most populous democracy and potentially forcing parties to address the contentious issue of candidate selection.
Apositive right not to vote is a form of expression under the right to freedom of speech and expression in a parliamentary democracy and it has to be recognised in the same manner as the right to vote, the apex court ruled on Friday, dismissing the government's contention that rejection of all candidates would have the same effect as voters choosing not to go to the polling station at all.
Not turning up for voting is "not an ideal option for a conscientious and responsible citizen", the court said, and expressed the hope that "when political parties realise that a large number of people are expressing their disapproval with the candidates being put up by them, gradually there will be a systemic change and political parties will be forced to accept the will of the people and field candidates who are known for their integrity".

The council on Friday voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 2118 aimed at ridding Syria of chemical weapons. The vote came after the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an international chemical weapons watchdog, agreed on a plan to destroy Syria's stockpiles by mid-2014.
"We are heartened to see that the Security Council has just unanimously adopted Resolution 2118, bringing the Syrian situation back to the track of peace from the verge of war and presenting a new opportunity for seeking a political settlement of the Syrian issue," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the council after the vote.
"This is the first time that the Security Council has taken a joint major action on the Syrian issue in more than one year," he said.
"In dealing with the Syrian issue, the Security Council must bear in mind the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, act with a sense of responsibility to the Syrian people, the world and history, and ensure that any decision it takes can stand the test of history," he said.
Wang said China welcomed the fact that the Syrian government joined the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) not long ago.
"Resolution 2118 has set out the overall objective of the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria and the roadmap for the follow-up work," he said.
"We hope that the relevant parties will stay in close cooperation, fulfil their respective responsibilities and implement the OPCW decision and Security Council resolution in a comprehensive and accurate manner so as to eventually achieve a proper settlement of the issue of chemical weapons in Syria," Wang said.
The top Chinese diplomat said neither Syria nor the Middle East region could afford another war, and political settlement was the only way out of the crisis.
He urged a cease-fire and cessation of violence in Syria as soon as possible, as well as efforts to put an end to the crisis through dialogue and to rebuild homes for Syrian people.
China hoped the international community would build consensus and promote the early convening of the Geneva II conference, he said.
As a permanent member of the Security Council, China stood ready to work with all parties and make unremitting efforts for comprehensive, proper and long-term settlement of the Syrian issue, he said.
After the session, Wang also briefed media at the UN headquarters in New York on the Chinese goverment's position on the Syrian conflict.

A CBI court on Monday convicted Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad and 44 others in the fodder scam case that will not only decide the fate of RJD chief , the main accused, but also shape the future of Bihar politics.
Lalu Prasad faces upto 3-7 years in jail. The quantum of sentence will be announced on October 3. Former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra is among the 44 others convicted in the case.
Special CBI Judge PK Singh pronounced the judgment. Lalu Prasad's lawyer completed arguments in the case on September 17.
The fodder scam is a series of fraudulent transactions totaling about Rs. 950 crore.
Prasad and 44 others were charged with fraudulent withdrawal to the tune of Rs. 37.7 crore on fake fodder bills from Chaibasa treasury in the 1990s in a case lodged by CBI. Chaibasa was part of undivided Bihar then.

New York: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who met Nawaz Sharif here despite strong criticism from opposition back home, wants to "trust" the new Pakistan Prime Minister and give him a chance to "walk the talk" on stopping ceasefire violations and terror activities against India.
Stating this, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid underlined that while "seeking to trust" Sharif, India will "verify" the actions on the ground before taking any step further on resuming the stalled dialogue process.
In an interview to a news agency here, Khurshid said the "bacteria" of anti-India terrorism rooted in Pakistan must be eliminated whether "it is state-sponsored, state-controlled, state- mandated or state-encouraged" and should not be allowed to grow and destroy the "sapling" of "creative constructive relationship".
"Our Prime Minister wants to give him (Sharif) a chance, wants to trust him. But as he (Singh) has said we have to verify," said Khurshid while defending Singh's meeting with Sharif despite opposition BJP contending that it was not the right time as Pakistan was engaging in ceasefire violations.
Noting that Sharif has taken over as Prime Minister of Pakistan recently, he said there is a "reasonable element of hope that this discussion will not go waste and it will lead to some improvement and something concrete in the future."
At the hour-long meeting with Sharif yesterday on the sidelines of UNGA, Singh made it clear that ending ceasefire violations on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir is a pre-condition for resumption of bilateral dialogue.

Yuvraj returns for Australia series, no place for Gambhir, Sehwag
Yuvraj Singh has made an expected return to the Indian side for the only T20 and the first three ODIs of the seven-match series against Australia. However, there was no place for discarded seniors Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.
There are very few surprises in the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led squad that has performed admirably by winning the ICC Champions Trophy and the tri-series in West Indies. The return of Yuvraj, the stylish 31-year-old left-hander is the only major change. Yuvraj has replaced wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik in the squad.
There are four changes from the Indian squad that won the Champions Trophy in June this year. Alons with Karthik being replaced by Yuvraj, Murali Vijay has lost his place to Ambati Rayudu. All-rounder Irfan Pathan is not fit while pacer Umesh Yadav has been dropped after a poor showing in the Challenger Trophy. Specialist bowlers Jaydev Unadkat and Shami Ahmed have been drafted in.
Yuvraj last played an ODI for India on January 27 against England at Dharamsala and was dropped subsequently due to a poor run of form and a lack of fitness. Having undergone a rigorous physical training camp in France, a fitter Yuvraj made his comeback into the competitive cricket with a bang scoring 123, 40 and 61 in three List A matches against the West Indies A, followed by a quick-fire 52 against the same opponent in a T20 game.
He carried on with his good form in the Challenger Trophy for India Blue where he scored 84 against India Red and a 29 in the final against Delhi.
The batting line-up remains pretty much the same with Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Dhoni being automatic selections. Yuvraj's inclusion as the a specialist batsman in the playing XI means he will bolster the middle-order that was always a bit vulnerable.

Yuvraj returns for Australia series, no place for Gambhir, Sehwag
Yuvraj Singh has made an expected return to the Indian side for the only T20 and the first three ODIs of the seven-match series against Australia. However, there was no place for discarded seniors Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.
There are very few surprises in the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led squad that has performed admirably by winning the ICC Champions Trophy and the tri-series in West Indies. The return of Yuvraj, the stylish 31-year-old left-hander is the only major change. Yuvraj has replaced wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik in the squad.
There are four changes from the Indian squad that won the Champions Trophy in June this year. Alons with Karthik being replaced by Yuvraj, Murali Vijay has lost his place to Ambati Rayudu. All-rounder Irfan Pathan is not fit while pacer Umesh Yadav has been dropped after a poor showing in the Challenger Trophy. Specialist bowlers Jaydev Unadkat and Shami Ahmed have been drafted in.
Yuvraj last played an ODI for India on January 27 against England at Dharamsala and was dropped subsequently due to a poor run of form and a lack of fitness. Having undergone a rigorous physical training camp in France, a fitter Yuvraj made his comeback into the competitive cricket with a bang scoring 123, 40 and 61 in three List A matches against the West Indies A, followed by a quick-fire 52 against the same opponent in a T20 game.
He carried on with his good form in the Challenger Trophy for India Blue where he scored 84 against India Red and a 29 in the final against Delhi.
The batting line-up remains pretty much the same with Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Dhoni being automatic selections. Yuvraj's inclusion as the a specialist batsman in the playing XI means he will bolster the middle-order that was always a bit vulnerable.

Most stars when asked about plans for their birthday often dismiss it as just another day. Ranbir Kapoor, who is busy promoting his film 'Besharam' too played it down and said his birthday was like any other day. You would want to believe that because Ranbir has been working on his birthday for the past six years. But, with the love of his life Katrina Kaif's presence looming large things were bound to be different this time.According to a source Ranbir had asked the makers of 'Besharam' to not clog up his day with too many promotional commitments on his birthday. He stayed put at his home. He stepped out in the evening for an event to launch a clothing line inspired by his look in the film.
When asked about what gift Katrina had given on his birthday , he evaded the question by saying, "None of your business."
A noisy celebration was ruled out as most of Ranbir's friends were not in town. Karan Johar and Ayan Mukerji are in New York. His other director friend Imitiaz Ali was in Delhi and Anurag Basu, with whom he plans to co-produce Jagga Jasoos was also reportedly busy working on the script of their forthcoming venture.
Another source said that Katrina was present at Krishna Raj, Ranbir's bungalow for major part of the night. So one thing is confirmed, the quiet celebrations were not without Katrina. If there was something to make a noise about, neither Ranbir nor Katrina are telling us about it. Not yet.

New Delhi: The journalist who says she was sexually assaulted by her boss, Tarun Tejpal, the editor of Tehelka magazine, says she is "deeply disappointed by Tehelka's response." The woman told NDTV, "To claim that other journalists in Tehelka are satisfied is also false since my testimony has not been publicly circulated within Tehelka, only Tarun's letter of 'atonement' has."
Last evening, Mr Tejpal said he was stepping down for six months as "atonement" for what he described as "...a bad lapse of judgment, an awful misreading of the situation." (Read entire letter here)
Shoma Choudhary, the managing editor of the news-magazine, told NDTV last night that "This is an internal matter. The journalist concerned is satisfied with the action taken."
Women's rights activists have described his decision to "recuse himself from the editorship of Tehelka, and from the Tehelka office, for six months" as inappropriate and grossly insufficient. (reactions)
"It is not right that one will punish oneself on something that he has done. We have the judiciary for it," said Nirmala Samant of the National Commission for Women.

Yum Brands Inc said it would combine the US and international divisions of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell and keep its China and India units separate as part of a reorganization.
The reorganization will be effective from January 1 and beginning fiscal year 2014, the company will report results for KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell and for its China and India divisions.
"We believe that having 100 per cent focused brand teams will enable us to more aggressively accelerate growth," Chief Executive David Novak said.
The China and India units will remain separate given their "strategic importance and enormous growth potential", the company said.
Yum is the biggest U.S. restaurant operator in China and that market traditionally accounts for more than half of the company's operating profit.
But sales at restaurants in China have taken a beating since chemical residues were found in chicken from some of its poultry suppliers in China late last year.
The company has also been investing heavily in India.

A US jury awarded Apple Inc about $290 million in a damages retrial against Samsung Electronics Co, restoring a large chunk of a historic verdict the iPhone maker won last year.
Apple had requested $379.8 million, while Samsung argued that it should have to pay $52.7 million.
After a week long trial, the jury deliberated for nearly two days before reaching a decision on Thursday in a San Jose, California federal court.
The two companies have been fighting in the courts for over two years. Apple was awarded over $1 billion last year after it convinced a jury that Samsung copied various iPhone features - like using fingers to pinch and zoom on the screen - along with design touches like the phone's flat, black glass screen.
Earlier this year US District Judge Lucy Koh upheld nearly $640 million of that verdict but ordered a retrial on the rest, ruling that the previous jury had made some errors in its calculations. Combined with the retrial verdict of $290.5 million on Thursday, Apple has now been awarded $929.8 million in the case.
Samsung spokeswoman Lauren Restuccia said the company is disappointed by the verdict, especially because one of the patents in the case has been recently deemed invalid by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Apple is contesting that finding.
The US company's spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said it was grateful to the jury for imposing costs on Samsung, though she said the case has been more about protecting innovation than winning money.
Samsung manufactures phones that use the Android operating system, which is developed by Google. In addition to the fight over money, Apple is seeking a permanent injunction against several older Samsung phones. Koh had previously rejected such a sales ban, but earlier this week the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ordered her to reconsider.
Apple called its marketing chief Phil Schiller to testify during the trial. Samsung did not call any senior executives, a fact hammered on by Apple attorneys during closing argument.
Juror Barry Goldman-Hall, 60, said the the six-women, two-men jury discussed the disparity. "We felt like we had way more information from Apple and we were left wondering why we hadn't gotten other information from Samsung," said Goldman-Hall, a therapist.
Colleen Allen, the jury forewoman, said Apple did not enjoy a home field advantage from having the trial so close to the iPhone maker's headquarters in Cupertino. Both companies are global players, she said, and while Apple engineers may be based in Northern California, its products are manufactured overseas.
The jurors based their decision on the evidence, said Allen, a 36-year old nurse. "Samsung could've come up with a little more evidence," Allen said.
The case is likely to drag on as Samsung appeals both verdicts, said Brian Love, a professor at Santa Clara Law in Silicon Valley. "Litigation between the parties is far from over, and there is no end in sight," Love said.
The case in US District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc vs. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, 11-1846.

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Minor fire at Shah Rukh Khan's residence
IANS Mumbai, November 22, 2013 | UPDATED 11:20 IST
Fire broke out at Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's residence Thursday night, but sources Friday said it was a minor accident and things were under control.
"Nothing to worry it was just a minor thing and everything is under control," a source close to the actor said.
Fire occurred due to short circuit in the bathroom, but was soon doused by fire tenders.

Ousted contestant Kushal Tandon returned to the show on Thursday night to re- unite with housemate and rumoured girlfriend Gauhar Khan. This, even as Tanisha and Armaan Kohli are back in news with rumours of them being caught in camera in a compromising position which is doing the rounds on the Internet.
On Wednesday, the Bigg Boss house located in Lonavala was abuzz with news channels approaching the production unit to get details on the alleged intimate moments between Tanisha and Armaan, captured by one of the 84 prying cameras in the house.
Colors, the channel airing the show, has reportedly decided not to air the scene. Although the channel has been denying reports of any such " embarrassing" or " awkward" moment between the two, their closeness has been way too blatant over the past 60 days since the show went on air.

Actress Shilpa Shetty, who debuted her thinner self post pregnancy for a fashion event, credits her 18-month-old son for regaining her hour-glass figure.
The 38-year-old 'Celebrity Big Brother' star said that her son, Viaan Raj Kundra, is so naughty that she always runs after him in the house.
"Viaan is very naughty, He keeps me on toes everytime and that is the reason behind shedding my post pregnancy flab so quickly. Now, people don't believe that I am the same Shilpa who had given birth to a boy last year," Shilpa said.
Dressed in a body-hugging red gown with a thigh high slit, the model-turned-actress dazzled the ramp for designer duo Pankaj and Nidhi last evening at the Blender's Pride Fashion Tour 2013.
The actress admitted that for the first time she did not feel nervous on the ramp as her outfit was comfortable and stylish.
"We actors are generally dressed as Christmas tree on the ramp by the designers with their high end couture and bridal collection. I have always worn lehengas but this is the first time I am wearing a western outfit. I was very confident on the ramp because of this beautiful outfit and was not at all nervous. I was more nervous in the delivery room," Shilpa said.
Shilpa said that she was worried with her outfit earlier and was constantly in touch with the designers for the measurements.

MUMBAI: Ahmedabad-based Cadila Pharmaceuticals introduced the first novel product for cancer management which it claims is a significant breakthrough in the treatment of lung cancer.
Mycidac-C is an innovative research product for patients suffering from a cancer sub-type - non-small cell lung cancer - and will be priced at Rs 4,000 for 10 injections. The total cost of therapy to patients is estimated at Rs 40,000 - which the company claims is affordable as cancer treatment is generally exorbitant.
Cadila CMD Dr Rajiv Modi said on Thursday, "Our drug is a significant breakthrough in the management of squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), since the introduction of first line cancer drugs nearly 30 years ago."

NEW DELHI: Rating agency Fitch said that the Indian telecom sector was heading for consolidation as "weaker, smaller" mobile phone companies would be acquired by larger players or be merged amongst themselves to improve profitability and cash flow over the next financial year.
"Overcapacity will decline in both Indian and Indonesian telecom industries over 2014-15," the agency said in a note on Thursday. It, however, warned that such deals may "weaken" balance sheets of larger telecom ..

Srinagar, Nov 21: Aircel, one of the country’s leading telecom players, has partnered with D-Link – a leader in wireless networking to offer 3G data benefits to its customers across the country.
In a statement a spokesman of Aircel said, the reverse bundling offer will enable customers to get 1 GB of free 3G data per month for a period of 3 months. The offer will be available for customers who activate an Aircel 3G SIM on D-Link data card namely ‘D-Link DWM-156’ and routers namely ‘D-Link DWR-512 and DWR-730’.
The partnership is aimed at driving data growth in India by offering high-end 3G experience to the customers.
“To avail the benefits, customers need to make a total recharge of Rs 100 per month post activation; free 3G benefits will be over and above recharge benefits,” the spokesman said.
Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer - Aircel, said: “Aircel constantly strives to contribute to the growth of data in India by introducing affordable innovations for the customers. A recent report by IAMAI and IMRB estimates that by June 2014, India will have 243 million Internet users, at which point of time, it is expected to overtake the US as the second largest Internet base in the world.”
“We aim to provide consumers with a unique online experience that is exclusively designed to meet customer demand. D-Link’s innovative and user friendly 3G devices like DWM-156 & DWR-730 are sure to offer seamless access to high-definition content, music, movie etc. anytime, anywhere” said Anoop Jarial, Vice president – Product Marketing, D-Link (India) Limited.

New Delhi: A two-and-a-half-year old girl was allegedly raped inside her rented house here Thursday.
The incident was reported around 6.00 p.m. when the victim was rushed to a nearby hospital in South Delhi's Ambedkar Nagar area.
"As blood was oozing out from her private parts continuously after her treatment, she was later shifted to Sadarjung Hospital. Now her condition is stable," said a police officer.
Police were still waiting for the victim's medical report to confirm if she was raped or it was an accidental injury on her private parts.
However, the child's mother, who belongs to Afghanistan and has been residing in Ambedkar Nagar for some time, alleged that her daughter was raped.
"The victim's mother told police that she had gone outside her house, leaving her daughter sleeping. After returning within half-an-hour she found the child bleeding and crying," the officer said.

0.45 am: 15 percent voting in first two hours Madhya Pradesh has recorded 15 percent voting in the first two hours, reports CNN-IBN. As many as 4.6 crore (46 million) voters are eligible to exercise their right to franchise in the state. 10.15 am: Modi urges people to vote in large numbers BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has urged people in both Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram. Modi took to his Twitter feed to tell people to go out in large numbers and cast their votes.

Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha
11:20 am: CBI court to announce verdict at 2:00 pm
As the entire nation eagerly waits to see how one of the most intriguing murder mysteries would conclude, reports say that the special CBI court in Ghaziabad will pronounce the verdict at 2:00 pm today.
11:10 am: Talwars arrive at the court
Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar, the parents of the slain teenager Aarushi Talwar, who are also the main accused in the double murder, have arrived at the court.
10:45 am: CBI lawyers and judge arrive at CBI court
The CBI team, including RK Saini who led the prosecution, and Special judge Shyam Lal who will read out the verdict has arrived at the court. The Talwars however, haven't yet arrived.
10:30 am: Defence counsels reach the court
Defence lawyers of Talwar couple have arrived at the court premises. Tanwir Ahmed Mir is the lawyer for Talwars.
10: 20 am: Tight security at Ghaziabad court and Talwars' residence
Heavy security is in place outside the special CBI court in Ghaziabad where the most awaited Aarushi verdict is set to be declared today. Reports said that constables were ready to tackle any untoward incident with tear gas shells. Security has also been boosted at Jalavayu Vihar in Noida – the residence of Talwar couple, who will be escorted to the court by the police.
10:00 am: Verdict Day: CBI court to end Aarushi-Hemraj murder case
In what is slated to bring to an end one of the most sensational murder mysteries, a CBI special court here will declare the verdict in Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case on Monday.
More than five years after the dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar's teenager daughter Aarushi Talwar and servant Hemraj were found murdered on May 15-16 2008 at their Jalvayu Vihar residence, the CBI court will today blow the lid off the mystery that has intrigued the courts and the people alike.

It is obvious to anyone watching Bigg Boss that Tanishaa Mukerji and Armaan Kohli have feelings for each other. On more than one occasion they have been shown cozying up to each other, when they thought they were not on camera. They even sleep next to each other (as seen on the live footage, not shown on TV). It has been reported that her brother-in-law Ajay Devgn called host and dost Salman Khan and asked him to edit out controversial situations involving her because the family was embarrassed. Although the host can’t tell the channel what to show, in the following week’s episode Salman reminded Tanishaa about the number of cameras in the BB house.
However, his well-meaning advice seems to have been ignored by the lovers.
Things have gotten worse. There was a report of Tanishaa and Armaan getting flirty under the sheets. Although it was not televised, there is a crew of over 100 people on the reality show set and there are few secrets. According to a source, Ajay has called up Salman again and asked him to get Tanishaa evicted from BB7. It maybe recalled that Tanishaa’s family were unhappy with her decision to go on a reality show and had tried their best to dissuade her. When she still went ahead, Ajay is said to have asked Salman to take personal care of Tanishaa and SK in turn had instructed the production and crew to ‘protect’ her as she comes from a respectable film family.
Says a source, “There’s pressure on the channel to evict Tanishaa from the show. Her proximity with Armaan is something that has shocked the entire family. Tanishaa is a firebrand and in the BB house, she comes across as a brainless blonde who is just doing Armaan’s bidding. A fact, that even Salman pointed out and questioned Tanishaa about. And she promised him that she will have a voice and not follow anyone blindly. Last week’s reports have shocked Tanishaa’s sister Kajol and mom Tanuja and they pressed Ajay to make that call to Salman. Ajay called Salman and requested him to look into the matter and find a way of evicting Tanishaa. Her eviction is being planned in the next couple of weeks. It remains to be seen if the channel will agree as it’s all about TRP’s and Tanishaa and Armaan’s on-screen antics create a lot of buzz.”

"Agastya's birthday. Enters his 'teen'. Here to wish him," Amitabh posted Saturday night on srbachchan.tumblr.com.
While his grandson was covered in a hood, Amitabh was spotted in casuals with a jacket on.
Saturday early morning, he had posted: "He (Agastya) was just born the other day and we were all rushing from different parts of the country to the Breach Candy Hospital for the delivery."

'Bullett Raja' lead actor Saif Ali Khan attended the special screening of his soon-to-release action flick with two beautiful ladies - wife Kareena Kapoor and sister-in-law Karisma Kapoor.
While, Saif went casual in a denim-T-shirt look paired with sneakers, wife Kareena was surprisingly plain and if we may say so, a tad under-dressed.
The actress, who stars in the newly-released ‘Gori Tere Pyaar Mein’ opposite Imran Khan, went make-up free in black comfy slouchy pants paired with a sweatshirt of the same colour.
Kareena's sister Karisma Kapoor in fact was her usual chic self in a star-printed monochrome top paired with a pair of jeans and T-strap sandals.
Saif Ali Khan, who was last seen in 'Go Goa Gone', seems excited for the release of the Tigmanshu Dhulia flick that also stars Sonakshi Sinha.
Saif will be seen playing the role of the gangster Raja Mishra in the film.
‘Bullet Raja’ tells the tale of the Uttar Pradesh-based mafia while dealing with political and industrial forces of the state.
'Bullett Raja' will hit screens on November 29.

The West Indies beat India by two wickets in a thrilling finish in the second of the three One-Day Internationals (ODI) at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium here Sunday to level the series 1-1.
India scored 288/5 from their 50 overs after being put in to bat and the West Indies chased down the total with three balls to spare.
The visitors did not get off to a good start, losing two wickets - Johnson Charles (12) and Marlon Samuels (8) - in the first six overs with the score only at 23.
But opener Kieran Powell (59) and Darren Bravo (50) put together an important 100-run partnership for the third wicket to put the Windies' chase back on track.
The Caribbean side lost a few wickets in the middle overs but another good 82-run partnership continued their chase against the climbing run rate. Lendl Simmons (62) and Darren Sammy (63 not out) took the Windies from 185/5 to 267/6.
However, two quick wickets in the death overs poised the match for an exciting finish but Sammy made sure the visitors reached the target.
Medium pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, offie Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami scalped two wickets each while Mohit Sharma took one.

Interactive models on maths have been set up at Visvesvaraya Museum, impressing one and all.
A general notion about maths is that it is a difficult subject, suited only for geeks. To rid the subject of its scary image, an interactive maths exhibition is being held in the city, wowing and wooing all.
The exhibition, ‘Mathematics for the Billion’, kicked off at Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum on Friday. Renowned scientist Roddam Narasimha of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research inaugurated the exhibition. The models are interactive and designed to make even a mathphobic person feel at ease with the subject. The idea was to illustrate applications of mathematics in an effective manner with the help of visuals and physical models.
Meena, a housewife who visited the exhibition, said she would have loved maths had she been taught using the models such as the ones at the museum. Nagamani of Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology said many people perceive maths as scary. She said her school chose to help with the models so that they could help dispel the false notion surrounding the subject.

Ghaziabad: Dr Nupur Talwar, who along with her husband Dr Rajesh Talwar was convicted for killing her daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj Banjade by a Ghaziabad court on Monday, has taken ill. Nupur and Rajesh have been lodged in Dasna jail and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court will pronounce the quantum of sentence in the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case later on Tuesday.
Nupur has complained of uneasiness, anxiety and high blood pressure with jail authorities saying that her condition is being monitored. Rajesh, too, is reportedly suffering from high blood pressure but is doing fine.
"Doctors in our ladies wing are conducting Nupur Talwar's check-up but the situation is under control. Rajesh Talwar's blood pressure was slightly high but he is fine. Nupur is being treated for anxiety," said Dasna Jail jailor Vireshraj Sharma.

The young woman journalist who has accused Tehelka founder and its editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal of sexually assaulting her resigned from the magazine Monday, alleging "tactics of intimidation, character assassination and slander", and is expected to travel to Goa soon to record her crucial statement to the police.
Her resignation came as Tejpal filed an anticipatory transit bail application in the Delhi High Court saying the "police are after him". A transit anticipatory bail is exemption from arrest to enable an accused to travel to a different city to appear in court there.
The resignation also came on a day the Goa police said the investigating officer in the case, Sunita Sawant, had established contact with the journalist.
In an email to Chaudhury, the victim has said she is "deeply traumatised by the lack of support offered by the organization", adding that it wasn't just Tejpal who had failed her as an employer but
Tehelka that had "failed women, employees, journalists and feminists collectively".
The victim's resignation email, which sources said was sent Monday afternoon, said she was quitting because she had been "sexually molested by Tarun Tejpal on two occasions".
The victim said Tejpal failed to acknowledge "sexual misconduct" as demanded by her in his apology email to the Tehelka staff and had instead referred to it as an "untoward incident".

As Narendra Modi-Rahul Gandhi's relentless fight in Rajasthan has grabbed eyeballs and got much-wanted media attention with less than a week for the assembly polls to begin, other senior leaders of both Congress and BJP have decided to jump into the bandwagon, an example of which will be seen on Tuesday as many of them will take to the stage to address voters in different districts of Rajasthan. Here is the schedule of the rallies below:
BJP rallies scheduled for Tuesday:
-BJP president Rajnath Singh will address rally in Dungarpur to support BJP candidate.

iifFor Huma Qureshi working with her idol Madhuri Dixit in upcoming film 'Dedh Ishqiya' was a dream come true and the actress says she never once felt insecure about sharing screen space with the Bollywood diva.
The 27-year-old actress and Madhuri are the new addition to the Abhishek Chaubey directed sequel to 2010 'Ishqiya'.
The film will see Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi reprising their roles of Khalujaan and Babban from the original film.
Huma says right from the time she signed the film till finishing it, she was aware of her part and the makers never let her feel like a second lead in the movie.

Floral tributes were paid to martyrs and victims of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks amidst tight security here on Tuesday.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan paid homage to the heroes at the Police Gymkhana in Marine Lines where a 26/11 memorial has been erected in remembrance of the policemen, who lost their lives fighting terrorists during the dastardly strikes.
The 2008 Mumbai attacks were twelve coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, by members of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker who was captured alive, later confessed upon interrogation that the attacks were conducted with the support of Pakistan''s ISI.
The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on Wednesday, 26 November and lasted until Saturday, 29 November 2008, claiming the lives of 166 people and wounding at least 308.
On 29 November, National Security Guards (NSG) conducted Operation Black Tornado to flush out the remaining attackers. It resulted in the deaths of the last remaining attackers at the Taj Hotel and the ending all fighting in the attacks.
Kasab was hanged on 21 November 2012 and buried at Yerwada Jail in Pune.

New York, Nov 26 (PTI) BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is among Time magazine's shortlisted candidates for its 'Person of the Year' title and has emerged as an early favourite among the readers in an online poll.
Time has shortlisted 42 global leaders, entrepreneurs and celebrities for its 'Person of the Year 2013' and will announce the winner next month.

It is going to be an instant hint in the Indian market. Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 with great specs, top features, low price will make it bestseller
Samsung Electronics is upgrading its large-screen smartphone with the Galaxy Grand 2, packing in it a bigger high-def screen, faster processor and more RAM than its predecessor, the Galaxy Grand
Announced last December, the next Grand 2 is powered by Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) and has dual-sim functionality. Other hardware improvements are a processor with four cores, running at the (same) speed of 1.2GHz. the 5.25 inches screen shows HD video resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels. The camera here is 8MP with LED flash and a 1.9MP camera in front as compared to the earlier 5MP one.

Micromax has introduced the Canvas HD A116i, the successor to the Canvas HD smartphone for the Indian market. The Canvas HD A116i is listed at ecommerce website, eBay and is available at Rs. 14,299 (with free shipping). However, one can find cheaper deals on the online retailer as well. The domestic handset maker is yet to announce the smartphone officially, though.
The Micromax Canvas HD A116i runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, with the listing claiming that the company plans to roll-out an update to Android 4.2.1 soon. Much like the Canvas HD, it is a dual-SIM device with support for GSM+GSM. The Canvas HD A116i is powered by a MediaTek's MT6589 quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz along with PowerVR SGX544 GPU and 1GB of RAM. The smartphone features a 5-inch display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels and boasts of a pixel density of 294ppi.
For optics, there is an 8-megapixel rear shooter with LED flash and 4X zoom, and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. There is 4GB of inbuilt storage, which is further expandable up to 32GB via microSD card. Connectivity options on the smartphone include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPRS, EDGE and 3G. There is no mention of the battery included on the Canvas HD A116i.
Looking at the specifications, we are unable to see the difference between the predecessor and successor, and perhaps the only unmentioned detail, battery capacity, might be the singular change in the models, with the A116i expected to bear a larger battery. Micromax announced the Canvas HD in February this year.
Previously, on Monday, Micromax's new budget smartphone, the A77 Canvas Juice was listed online at Rs. 7,999. The Micromax A77 Canvas Juice runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and is a dual-SIM phablet with support for GSM+GSM and dual standby. It features a 5-inch FWVGA display with 480x854 pixels resolution. The phablet is powered by a dual-core 1.3GHz processor along with 1GB of RAM.
It sports a 5-megapixel autofocus rear camera accompanied by an LED flash and also includes a VGA front-facing camera. It comes with 4GB inbuilt storage, which can be expanded up to 32GB with the help of a microSD card.

Veteran pacer Zaheer Khan made a comeback to India's Test side after close to a year but opener Gautam Gambhir was ignored as the selectors today announced the squads for the Test and ODI tour of South Africa starting December 5.
The 35-year-old Zaheer, who had been battling fitness issues and was even dropped from the BCCI's list of contracted players, was chosen in the 17-member Test squad after taking 13 wickets in three Ranji Trophy matches at an average of 19.84 this season.
Gambhir, however, had no such luck as the opener, who has been downgraded to group B in the list of contracted players, failed to find a place despite a healthy average of 74 plus in the ongoing Ranji season. "His name was discussed, in fact, we discussed a lot of things. Even skipper M S Dhoni was consulted and all the players were selected unanimously," BCCI Secretary Sanjay Patel said after a meeting of the selection committee here.
The month-long tour featuring three ODIs followed by two Tests is India's first international assignment after the retirement of iconic batsman Sachin Tendulkar.
Baroda batsman Ambati Rayudu, a seasoned domestic player, has been named in both the Test and ODI squads, while veterans like Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh continued to remain on the sidelines. The 28-year-old Rayudu, who is currently a part of the team in the ongoing ODI series against the West Indies, has played four one-dayers for India.

Zee Media Bureau
Ghaziabad: Dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, who were on Tuesday sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment by a Special CBI court for killing their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj, will now approach the higher court against the verdict.
A day after holding them guilty, Special CBI Judge Shyam Lal on Tuesday said he was convinced that the gory murders of May 2008 at the Talwars' plush residence in Noida adjoining Delhi were committed "by the accused only".
"This court reaches the irresistible and impeccable conclusion that only the accused persons are responsible for committing this ghastly crime," he said in his 210-page judgment.
"The manner in which the murders were committed is not the handiwork of single accused and rather the murders were committed and evidence destroyed by both the accused in furtherance of their common intention which is apparent from the facts and circumstances," he said.
The judge said he did not give the couple death penalty as sought by the prosecution "in view the entire facts and circumstances ... (as) the accused are not (a) menace to the orderly society.
"Therefore, it appears just and proper to sentence the accused to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 302 with Section 34 of the IPC."
"The rarest of the rare case comes when a convict would be a menace and threat to the harmonious and peaceful existence of the society."
The distraught couple, who were until recently among the most sought-after dentists in Delhi and Noida, were in the court when the verdict was given. They were quickly taken back to the Dasna Jail in Ghaziabad district.
Talwars' lawyer Tanvir Ahmed Mir described the couple as "brave" and said they would "fight for the honour of their daughter till the last drop of their blood". They would approach the higher court.
The Talwars were convicted on Monday of killing their 14-year-old daughter and 45-year-old domestic help Hemraj on the night of May 15-16, 2008.
The Class 9 student was found with her throat slit and head battered at the Talwars' Noida home.
Police initially suspected the then missing Hemraj for Aarushi's killing until they found his body from the terrace of the house the next day.
It marked the start of a widely publicised whodunit with twists and turns before the Central Bureau of Investigation -- brought in after the local police faced flak for a shoddy probe -- held the Talwars guilty.
CBI counsel RK Saini maintained that the couple - who had a thriving practice -- killed Aarushi after seeing her and Hemraj in "a compromising position".
The court said that from the evidence produced by the CBI, it was proved that the couple had the knowledge of the double murder.
But to screen themselves from law, Rajesh Talwar gave false information to police that Hemraj had murdered Aarushi.

Tokyo: Japanese airlines said on Wednesday they had stopped following rules set by China when it unilaterally declared the right to manage the skies over the East China Sea.
The reversal comes after pressure from the Japanese government, which insisted China's announcement was invalid, and after governments around the world lined up alongside Tokyo.
Japan's two major airlines had previously said they had been submitting flight plans to Chinese authorities for any plane that was due to pass through the area, a key demand Beijing set out on Saturday when it said it had established an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).
The move heightened tensions in the region, where temperatures were already running high over the ownership of the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku islands, which Beijing says it owns and calls the Diaoyus.
Yesterday it was roundly condemned by Japan and its allies, including the United States, which flew two US B-52 bombers over the disputed islands in a show of force.
"After the Japanese government said private airlines don't have to follow Beijing's claims on Tuesday, our industry body held a meeting on Tuesday and decided we won't follow" Beijing's demands any more, a spokesman for former flag carrier Japan Airlines said.
"JAL has stopped submitting flight plans since 0000 am today (1500 GMT yesterday)," he said.
JAL's rival All Nippon Airways also said it has stopped complying.
"The Scheduled Airlines Association of Japan, an aviation industry body, made the decision after it received assurances from China, through the Japanese foreign ministry, that Beijing has no intention of obstructing the flights of commercial airline carriers," the JAL spokesman said.

After a strong foundation, West Indies lost their way in the middle, but Darren Sammy ensured and Dwayne Bravo ensured end well against India in the third ODI at the Green Park stadium in Kanpur.
Live Scorecard: India vs West Indies
Sammy and Bravo accelerated towards the end and the late burst gave the visitors something to bowl on a flat strip.
Earlier, Kieran Powell and Marlon Samuels laid a strong foundation for the visitors, but got out at the wrong time. After such a start, it was important that either one of them plays right till the end of the innings.
That didn't happen and West Indies threw away the start by losing three in a hurry. India will be happy with their effort in the middle overs, but there is work to do towards the end of the innings.
The seamers didn't get their lengths right, and were trying too many things. Sammy and Bravo were picking the variations without any trouble. The spinners didn't concede too many runs, but the seamers went for some runs.
Toss: India won the toss and elected to field first
Team news: Both sides unchanged for this fixture
Pitch: There will be some assistance for bowlers early on, but will become great for batting as game progresses. Dew not in picture.
It is a flat pitch. Brilliant for batting. See off the new ball, and there are plenty of runs on offer. Typical Green Park strip

New Delhi: With Delhi Assembly elections just a week away, each political party has been trying to showcase itself on a higher moral ground than the other but none of them have hesitated from giving tickets to leaders with criminal cases pending against them.
In fact the number of candidates with criminal cases pending against them has increased this time with 16 per cent candidates with pending criminal cases in the fray as compared to 2008 when there were 14 per cent such candidates, according to a study by Association for Democratic Reforms.
Out of 796 candidates who are contesting elections, 129 candidates have criminal cases registered against them. Of the 129 candidates, 93 have declared serious charges like attempt to murder and dacoity against them.

INDORE: A Delhi-based dentist Yogesh Bidmani and his wife Anuranjana, who came to attend a marriage ceremony in Indore on Sunday, were reportedly robbed of cash and jewellery worth over Rs 6 lakh from the room of a premier city hotel where they stayed during the assembly polls in the state.
A case under Sections 380 (theft) and 457 (house breaking and trespass) of IPC has been registered against unidentified persons on the complaint of the dentist at Vijay Nagar police station. Cops are scanning CCTV grabs of the room of Hotel Amar Vilas to make headway in the burglary case.
"We checked in at room no. 310 on the third floor of Hotel Amar Vilas on Sunday evening and a few hours later left for the marriage at Hotel Fortune Landmark in the city. Before leaving for the function, we left our valuables and cash at the electronic safe of the room and handed over the keys of the room at the hotel reception," Dr Bidmani told TOI over phone from New Delhi on Tuesday.
The couple returned from the marriage at 12.45 am late on Sunday and immediately went to sleep. "When we woke up in the morning and tried to open the electronic safe with the requisite security code, known only to us and the hotel staff, the safe popped up an error message. We immediately informed the hotel staff," Dr Bidmani added.
"When the safe was opened by hotel staff in our presence, we were stunned to find Rs 30,000 cash, a diamond necklace-cum-ear rings and a gold bracelet, all totaling over Rs 6 lakh missing. We subsequently scanned the hotel CCTV grabs and found that two hotel staff had entered the room in our absence. We strongly believe they have burgled our valuables and cash by opening the safe with the security master code," the 58-year-old dentist added.
The Delhi-based dentist subsequently lodged a criminal case at Vijay Nagar police station on Monday, the day of assembly polls in the state. Investigating officer in the case and sub inspector at Vijay Nagar police station IS Rawat, said the case against unidentified persons is being investigated and the CCTV footage from the hotel is being scanned.

Facebook is reportedly testing a feature to let users save shared links on the site for later reading, similar to apps like Instapaper and Pocket.
The feature comes in the form of a small iBook-like bookmark button attached to stories shared in the News Feed and if a user clicks on the button, the link will be set aside in a ‘saved’ menu inside a user’s Facebook apps menu.
According to AllThingsD, Facebook has made it clear that it wants to play more of a part in how people use the social network to discover and read articles from third-party publishers.
The company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg had once said that Facebook wants to give everyone in the world the best personalized newspaper.
There are also speculations that Facebook is working on its own newsreader-like feature, to make the site a destination for media content and discovery.
Any official announcement about the extent and time of rolling out the feature is yet to happen.

Mumbai: The Tata group withdrew its application for a banking licence, months before the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to open up the sector to a new set of new private banks in Asia’s third largest economy.
Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company of the Tata group, said in a statement that its “current financial services operating model best supports the current needs of the Tata group’s domestic and overseas strategy, and provides adequate operating flexibility to its companies, while securing the interests of the group’s diverse stakeholder base”.
RBI said in a press release that has accepted the withdrawal.
That leaves 25 applicants, including the Aditya Birla Group, the Bajaj Group and Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group, in the race for a banking licence.
Tata Sons added in its statement that said it had written to RBI on Tuesday withdrawing the application after a detailed evaluation of the “guidelines for licensing of new banks in the private sector” and analysis of clarifications.
Tata Sons is not the first business house to have a change of heart. In June, Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Ltd decided not to apply for a banking licence, saying RBI’s norms were not conducive for large and successful non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to turn into banks.

Helsinki: Jolla Oy, a Finnish smartphone maker founded by former Nokia Oyj engineers, is stepping up its challenge to Apple Inc. and Google Inc. after its first handsets were snapped up by consumers looking for change.
The company sold out the first production batches as customers preordered tens of thousands of its debut product, with the first 450 units being delivered to users at an event in Helsinki on Wednesday.
Rather than trying to compete solely in the hardware business, Helsinki-based Jolla is seeking to take on systems such as Google’s Android in providing device manufacturers with software, for which profit margins are typically higher. Its first own device is intended as a reference product, to show what the company’s operating system is capable of.
This is a product where our company can introduce our idealistic views on how we believe the mobile phone should be, Antti Saarnio, Jolla’s chairman and co-founder, said in an interview. On the business side, we’re dead serious. With our own phone and our partners’ phones combined, we’re expecting to sell millions of phones.
The Jolla phone costs €399 ($542) without wireless-carrier subsidies. The price includes taxes in the European Union. The company received preorders from 136 countries and plans to start selling devices in the rest of Europe and China in 2014.
Gesture controls
The phone uses an operating system called Sailfish, which is based on the MeeGo software that was abandoned by Nokia after its switch to Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone. Its touch screen looks different from those of Android and Apple devices, and functions are controlled in a unique way.
We’ve made it very easy to move back and forth without having buttons, Marc Dillon, another co-founder and head of Jolla’s software business, said in an interview. There are really only two simple gestures: pushing from the edge of the screen and pushing from the center of the screen.
To make sure users can access thousands of applications from the start, Jolla made the phone compatible with Android apps sold through Yandex NV, a Russian rival to Google. Still, winning software developers’ hearts and building up a competitive app assortment for Sailfish is a challenge, said Richard Windsor, an independent analyst at Radio Free Mobile.
One of the bigger problems they’ve got is access to developers, Windsor said. They’ve implemented an emulator, which tricks the apps into thinking they’re running on an Android device. I have no idea how well it works. Historically emulators have been singularly awful.
‘User experience’
Jolla joins companies including Microsoft in trying to end the dominance of Google and Apple, whose operating systems ran 94% of the world’s smartphones in the third quarter, according to research firm IDC. Google provides Android to mobile-device manufacturers for free, while Apple uses its own iOS operating system in its iPhones and iPads.
It seems unlikely Jolla would sell huge volumes, said Windsor. It’s a showpiece to show what the platform is capable of. The biggest thing that they’ve got is the user experience they’ve built, the interface.
One of Jolla’s largest investors is Hong Kong-based Express Fortune, a unit of China Fortune Holdings Ltd., which bought a 6.25% stake of Jolla for €1 million on 18 February, partially related to an earlier convertible bond deal. The company’s founders own the majority of its shares.
The company plans expansion through potential e-commerce partners such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc., providing them with an operating system on which to build mobile versions of their e-commerce services.
Sailfish is a platform other players can drop their services on, Saarnio said. That’s why we exist, basically. BLOOMBERG

With rumours floating around that the new Apple iPhone will be called the 5c, people were quick to jump to the conclusion that it will be a cheaper version of the phone. In fact, that was just wishful thinking, for the iPhone 5c
turned out to be anything but cheap. In hindsight, it seems the C actually stood for colour. Design
This is the most colourful any iPhone has ever been. The iPhone 5c
is available in a wide array of colours, with the white one being the most sober. That could be a problem for people who want this phone but without the riot of colours. For instance, you would need a black cover. I just can’t get why there wouldn’t be a black body option.

Ranveer Singh's handlebar moustache is a thing of past now. The actor who was quite fond of his mooch has changed the look apparently for his upcoming Shaad Ali film, Kill Dill.
Gone are the long hair, beard and, of course, the mooch, which Ranveer sported in Ram-leela.
"Growing it was such a big thing, so I guess removing it will be another event," Ranveer had told a tabloid earlier.
wrap-up bash of his Ram-leela co-star Deepika Padukone's upcoming film, Finding Fanny, sporting the new look. The film pairs Dippy with Farhan Akhar.
A pic is doing the rounds on the micro-blogging site Twitter, which shows Arjun Kapoor and director Ali Abbas Zafar shaving off Ranveer's much-loved moustache.
Ranveer has talked about his mooch love on a couple of occasions.
"I would have grown my hair long and kept a similar beard if I wasn't playing (different) characters in my profession. That's how I would have been in my personal life. I'm very attached to my moustache, I love twirling it," the actor told Hindustan Times on another occasion.

Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: The Pakistan Taliban commander, in a video message, widely circulated on social networking site Facebook has warned the Pakistan media to stop paying tribute to Sachin Tendulkar, Indian cricket legend who retired this month.
The commander flanked by two masked gunmen carrying AK-47s, warned Pakistani media on Sunday mentioning that since Tendulkar was an Indian he did not deserve praise from Pakistan media.
"We have been monitoring Pakistani media, including news channels and newspapers, for the past three weeks and got to know how was Pakistani media praising Indian cricketer during his farewell. It was unfortunate to see Pakistani media went to great extent to pay tribute to Indian cricketer by running video clips on TV channels and writing huge articles in his praise. On the other hand, it was sad to know same Pakistani media badly criticised Pakistani cricket team as well as its captain Misbah-ul-Haq. We condemn this move of Pakistani media and expect it will not repeat the same in future," said the commander in the video.
"Shame for Pakistani media that spoke highly of Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. No doubt, he has been a great cricketer, but, he`s Indian after all, so stop promoting him," Pakistani Taliban warned media houses in Pakistan.
The Pakistan media had been showering praises on Tendulkar following his retirement. Notably, it is the first time in history of Pakistan that their media had showered praises on an Indian individual.
First Published: Thursday, November 28, 2013, 15:21

Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: The Pakistan Taliban commander, in a video message, widely circulated on social networking site Facebook has warned the Pakistan media to stop paying tribute to Sachin Tendulkar, Indian cricket legend who retired this month.
The commander flanked by two masked gunmen carrying AK-47s, warned Pakistani media on Sunday mentioning that since Tendulkar was an Indian he did not deserve praise from Pakistan media.
"We have been monitoring Pakistani media, including news channels and newspapers, for the past three weeks and got to know how was Pakistani media praising Indian cricketer during his farewell. It was unfortunate to see Pakistani media went to great extent to pay tribute to Indian cricketer by running video clips on TV channels and writing huge articles in his praise. On the other hand, it was sad to know same Pakistani media badly criticised Pakistani cricket team as well as its captain Misbah-ul-Haq. We condemn this move of Pakistani media and expect it will not repeat the same in future," said the commander in the video.
"Shame for Pakistani media that spoke highly of Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. No doubt, he has been a great cricketer, but, he`s Indian after all, so stop promoting him," Pakistani Taliban warned media houses in Pakistan.
The Pakistan media had been showering praises on Tendulkar following his retirement. Notably, it is the first time in history of Pakistan that their media had showered praises on an Indian individual.
First Published: Thursday, November 28, 2013, 15:21

am Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal has said that his party is likely to form the next government after widespread support from the people of Delhi and with the backing of the Congress next week, according to a report on Friday.
"We will take a final call after our ward meetings through the weekend, but there is an overwhelming support and pressure from people," Kejriwal was quoted as saying by the Economic Times.
He said that the Congress's decision to back AAP also forced a rethink on its earlier stand.
Amidst the political uncertainty in Delhi after the assembly elections forced a fractured mandate, Kejriwal told the ET that "the people want us to deliver" and providing "effective governance is no rocket science."
"Forming the government and delivering on our promises will reap huge benefits for AAP in Lok Sabha polls," Kejriwal was quoted as saying.
AAP made a grand debut in the polls by winning 28 seats in the 70-member assembly relegating the ruling Congress party to eight seats and forcing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to make do with 31.
The BJP, which ended as the single largest party, declined to form a government. The AAP was invited next but sought time to give its reply.
The routed Congress, left with just eight seats, offered outside support to the AAP.
AAP had launched a message campaign on Tuesday seeking to know if it should form a government after the December 4 elections resulted in a hung assembly.
Kejriwal had said that his party would announce its final decision on taking power after finding out the views of the people.
"The stand taken by Congress will be tracked by voters in the months to come in case it retracts," he said.
But Congress may change its mind as its leadership was apparently unhappy with the "tone and tenor" of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, senior party sources told HT on Thursday.

SINGAPORE: Singapore on Friday started deporting 52 Indian nationals for their role in the December 8 riot, the city state's worst street violence in 40 years.
Sixteen of the men were interviewed by the state-appointed Committee of Enquiry (COI) into the riot in the Little India area, a report Straits Times said.
The riot was sparked by a fatal accident involving an Indian national.
The 53 had allegedly obstructed the police or failed to obey police order to disperse during the riot, in which 39 Home Team officers, including policemen were injured and 25 police and Singapore Civil Defence Force vehicles damaged.
They were deemed to have posed a threat to the safety and security of Singapore, conditions that allows the authorities to deport them from entering the country again under the laws such as Immigration Act.
Twenty-eight Indian nationals were arraigned on riot charges and would have their cases heard in court on Monday.
Meanwhile, police have warned 200 other South Asian workers who were at the scene of riot. Police have issued advisories to the 200 to obey the law and would be allowed to remain in Singapore and work.

INDORE: A 32-year-old youth Shahid, a key witness in a case of murder of his brother Aslam in 2012, was shot at and critically injured by two youths Sheru and Naru in Khilchipura area of Mandsaur district on Thursday.
Shahid, who knew the two accused was taken by the duo on a motorcycle and then shot in the stomach from a pistol before they dumped him in agriculture field in Khilchipura. Additional SP (Mandsaur) a case of attempt to murder has been lodged against Sheru and Naru, while the critically injured Shahid has been rushed to the MY Hospital in Indore.

INDORE: An inquiry has been ordered against two Indore-based pharma companies for alleged manufacturing and distributing sub-standard medicines to pregnant women and children under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in Tripura.
The action was taken by Tripura government after drug samples of Sanwer-based Monarch Pharmaceutical Private Limited and Pithampur-based Quest Laboratories Private Limited failed to meet quality standards during a test. The test was conducted by Tripura drug controller.

WhatsApp, the popular mobile instant messaging service, claims to have 400 million monthly active users.
WhatsApp's CEO, Jan Koum in a blog post revealed the news and also noted that the company added 100 million active users in the last four months alone.
The blog post said, "Our goal in creating WhatsApp was to empower people through technology and communication, no matter who they are, or where they live. WhatsApp has reached a milestone that no other mobile messaging service has achieved: 400 million monthly active users, with 100 million active users added in the last four months alone. This isn't a count of people who just registered for WhatsApp - it's the number of people who are actively using the service every single month."
The mobile focused messaging company told AllThingsD that WhatsApp wants to turn the discussions of the shared numbers by other mobile instant messaging services to be about active users and not registered users. AllThingsD quotes Koum, "We're a bit fed up and frustrated about people talking about registered users. We think it's important for us as a leader in the space to speak up and be ethical."

Leading domestic handset manufacturer Micromax has partnered with telecom service provider to launch a phablet called Canvas Blaze for Rs 10,999. It will come bundled with free voice and data benefits.
The Canvas Blaze is available across all leading retail outlets in India. The company said that the collaboration is aimed at driving the mobile Internet penetration in the country.
Canvas Blaze features a 5” full touch display and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor featuring. It runs on Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) and comes with 1GHz dual-core CPU with integrated EVDO and a GSM modem.
MTS said that it provides high speed data services on 3G EVDO. It packs in 1850 mAh battery and sports 8.0MP rear camera with flash; 0.3MP front camera. It has Bluetooth v2.0 and WiFi as connectivity options.

I used a BlackBerry Curve 9360 for nearly two years, but as the sheen of BBM and easy access to work email slowly wore off, I realised it was not much of a 'smart' phone. It wasn't reliable either – It froze too often, the charge never lasted long enough ... and one day it just died. It'll probably come back to life, but as my secondary phone.
I had heard good things about the Google Nexus 5 and finally decided to go ahead and buy it. Here is what made me pick up this phone as my first Android.
PRICE: High-end models of BlackBerry, iPhone and Nokia Lumia would have set me back by nearly Rs 40,000 (or more). A Google product (manufactured by LG) in the Rs 30,000-35,000 price range – a phone that has the best of specs, class and style – was a good deal.
Google Nexus 5
ANDROID: I had never used an Android pho

Johannesburg: India`s pace bowlers staged a dramatic turnaround with a devastating exhibition of swing bowling as South Africa suffered a stunning collapse to leave the first cricket Test more or less on an even keel here on Thursday.
The Indians lost five wickets for just 25 runs to be bundled out for 280 in their first innings but clawed back brilliantly to leave the hosts at 213 for six at close in an action-packed second day.
The hosts were cruising along comfortably at 130 for one before the Indian pacers wreaked havoc to completely change the complexion of the game on a Wanderers track which gave assistance to the quick bowlers.
The lanky Ishant Sharma (3/64)triggered the shocking batting collapse by dismissing Hashim Amla (36) and Jaques Kallis (0) off consecutive deliveries before Zaheer Khan got rid of captain Graeme Smith (68) -- all three wickets falling without a single run being added.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pulled out all the stops to ensure people show up for the rally led by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. As a result, citizens can expect crowded railway stations this Sunday, when the rally will be held at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).
Nearly 45,000 supporters of Modi and the BJP are expected to attend the rally from different parts of Maharashtra, and also from neighbouring states. In order to ensure smooth travel to Mumbai for them, the BJP has booked 22 special long-distance trains.
In all, the railways have arranged for 44 special trains between December 21 and December 23. People from all over Maharashtra will be coming into the city for the rally and both Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) would be operating extra trains.

Five police constables have been arrested in Chandigarh for the alleged gang-rape of a school-girl.
Four of the accused policemen were on Police Control Room duty and the fifth was attached to the Crime Branch.
The policemen were reportedly beaten by an angry crowd when they were taken to a government hospital for a medical examination last night.
The incident was revealed when the girl allegedly attempted suicide, and her family went to senior police officers, after which an FIR, or police complaint was filed.
The girl has recorded her statement before a magistrate.
Reports suggest one of the constables started harassing the girl after she called to report a family dispute. The girl has reportedly alleged that she was raped at gunpoint and sexually assaulted for weeks by the constable and his four colleagues.

New Delhi: Actress Kareena Kapoor Khan has taken up the initiative to promote the cause of women safety as she says she does not 'feel safe in this city any more'.
Kareena has come on board for the initiative of Star network to highlight the issue of women's safety. She will champion the use of Channel V's 'VithU' app, which is a Star network initiative. Using the application, one can reach out to friends and guardians at the click of a button.
"When I was told about this app, I wanted to come on board. As the crime rate is growing I believe on the issue of women safety... They need to be protected. It's important for actors to stand up for issues as they can reach out to lot of people," Kareena told reporters here today.

Merchant navy captain Sunil James who returned to Mumbai yesterday after being released from a jail in Togo in western Africa after five months says he felt "helpless" when he was informed of his 11-month-old son Vivaan's death.
"Any father in such a situation is very helpless. I was sitting there and praying to God to let me see my son one last time," he told NDTV.
Captain James' homecoming was weighed down by the tragic death of his son who died of septicemia earlier this month. His family had refused to perform the infant's last rites till he had seen him one last time. The baby's body was kept in a morgue in Mumbai.
Captain James was freed along with another sailor Vijayan after India's High Commissioner in Ghana, K Jeeva Sagar, met Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe.
The sailors were arrested in July on charges of helping pirates who had attacked and looted their ship, MT Ocean Centurion, near the tiny African country that borders Ghana. Captain James' family had been making desperate attempts to secure his release since then.

Yash Raj Film's latest 'Dhoom 3' has created a record of sorts by earning Rs 107.61 crore in its opening weekend.
The Aamir Khan starrer earned around Rs 33 crore on the opening day exclusively through its Hindi version. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted on Monday morning that the the Hindi film had alone grossed Rs 100.76 crore while its Tamil and Telugu version earned Rs 6.85 crores in its opening weekend.
Dhoom 3' has become the biggest non-holiday opener in Bollywood till date, a record which was previously with 'Krrish 3'.

MOSCOW — Two women from the punk group Pussy Riot serving two-year prison terms for staging a protest performance against President Vladimir V. Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral were released on Monday under a new amnesty law. The case of Maria Alyokhina, who was set free from a prison in Nizhny Novgorod on Monday morning, and her co-defendant, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, drew international condemnation of Russia’s human rights record, with critics saying their prosecution and relatively stiff sentences represented a brutal repression of free speech.
Ms. Tolokonnikova, who has complained of headaches and harsh conditions in prison, and whose travails in the penal system have been followed intensely by the Russian press, was released hours after Ms. Alyokhina on Monday, according to the Associated Press. At one point this fall, Ms. Tolokonnikova dropped out of communication for three weeks, prompting fears for her health. The penitentiary service later issued a statement saying she had been moved to a new prison in Krasnoyarsk.
Ms. Alyokhina and Ms. Tolokonnikova each have young children.
The two women were convicted, along with a third woman, Yekaterina Samutsevich, whose sentence was later overturned on appeal, of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. The women had insisted repeatedly that they were motivated not by antireligious sentiment but by opposition to Mr. Putin and to Russia’s political system.
They said they had chosen the church, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, for their “punk prayer” to criticize the political support for Mr. Putin and the Kremlin shown by the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill 1.
The Russian Parliament, at Mr. Putin’s direction, passed a sweeping amnesty law last week that is expected to bring the release of a number of high-profile defendants and prisoners, including the Greenpeace activists recently arrested while protesting oil exploration in the Arctic.

S Jaishankar, the new Indian Ambassador to the US, will arrive in Washington tomorrow to take charge amid a raging diplomatic row over the arrest and strip-search of senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade on visa fraud charges.
Jaishankar, who till recently was India's Ambassador to China, arrives in Washington at a time when bilateral ties threatens to hit a low in more than a decade in the aftermath of the arrest of Ms Khobragade.
India has demanded an apology and withdrawal of charges against the 39-year-old Deputy Consul General at the Indian consulate in New York.
New Delhi has retaliated by withdrawing a slew of privileges being provided to American diplomats in India for decades. But, the US has refused to drop charges and tender an apology.
Considered as one of the brightest Foreign Service officials of his generation, who played a key role in the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, Mr Jaishankar's first task would be to prevent the relationship from getting derailed any further.
Though he arrives in Washington tomorrow, Mr Jaishankar would have to wait for several weeks before he can formally present his diplomatic credentials to US President Barack Obama at the White House.
Obama, who is currently enjoying year end vacation with his family in Hawaii, is scheduled to return only on January 5.
The White House has not announced any schedule of the President for credentialing of foreign diplomats, which is normally done in groups.
Mr Jaishankar, who is proficient in Russian and also knows Japanese and Hungarian, succeeds Nirupama Rao.
Born in New Delhi in 1955, S Jaishankar is son of prominent Indian strategic affairs analyst, commentator, and civil servant K Subrahmanyam and brother of historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam.

Today Samsung launched the Galaxy Grand 2 in India as the successor to the popular Galaxy Grand. Tech2's Roydon Cerejo told us that though the exact price was not announced at the product launch, the device will be priced between Rs 22,990 to Rs 24, 990 and will be available to the public from the first week of January 2014.

Young adults who are heavy users of the Internet may also exhibit signs of addiction, scientists, including Indian-origin researchers, have found.
Researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Duke University Medical Center and the Duke Institute of Brain Sciences compared Internet usage with measures of addiction.
The research, presented on December 18 at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Advanced Networks and Telecommunications Systems in Chennai, India, tracked the Internet usage of 69 college students over two months.
It revealed a correlation between certain types of Internet usage and addictive behaviours.
"The findings provide significant new insights into the association between Internet use and addictive behaviour," said Dr Sriram Chellappan, an assistant professor of computer science at Missouri S&T and the lead researcher of the study.
At the beginning of the study, the 69 students completed a 20-question survey called the Internet-Related Problem Scale (IRPS). The IRPS measures the level of problem a person is having due to Internet usage, on a scale of 0 to 200.
This scale was developed to identify characteristics of addiction, such as introversion, withdrawal, craving, tolerance and negative life consequences.
The researchers simultaneously tracked the campus Internet usage of participating students over two months.
Chellappan, working with Dr P Murali Doraiswamy, a professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Duke University Medical Center, found that the range of IRPS scores among participating students over the two-month period ranged from 30 to 134 on the 200-point scale.

The ex-wife of cricketer-turnedactor Salil Ankola allegedly committed suicide at her Pune home on Sunday evening.
Parinita Ankola, 46, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her Geeta Society apartment in Salisbury Park by her mother. Parinita and Ankola divorced in 2011, and have a daughter and son.
Senior Police Inspector Ram Pathare of Swargate Police Station said, "Parinita's mother had stepped out in the afternoon. When she returned around 8 pm, she found the door shut. Fearing something amiss, she called some neighbours to help, and then called the police. They discovered Parinita hanging from the ceiling fan." Parinita was rushed to Sassoon General Hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.
Police said no suicide note had been found and that a post-mortem was scheduled to be performed late Sunday night.

Bangalore: By its ruling on gay sex, the Supreme Court has refused to engage with Babasaheb Ambedkars notion of constitutional morality that restrains the majority from imposing its notions of morality on the minority, the countrys premier law school here has noted.
Expressing deep disappointment at the ruling, the Student Bar Association of the National Law School of India University here said in a statement that the judgment also clearly violates the principle of inclusiveness which has been articulated by Jawaharlal Nehru as "the heart of Indian Constitution".
"We believe that the Supreme Court, the guardian of our fundamental rights, has given a retrograde judgment by denying members of the LGBTQ community their rights as guaranteed by the Constitution of India. The judgment has implications for heterosexuals as well as it would criminalise certain consensual sexual behaviour that is classified as against the 'order of nature'," the NLSIU Bar Association said.
This judgment is notably at variation with the Supreme Court's own jurisprudence giving a liberal construction to the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution, it said.
The judgment, it said, is problematic on several counts. The apex court has failed to show any rational nexus between the classification of certain sexual behaviour as "unnatural" and the legislative object that would justify criminalizing such behaviour.
The court has also overlooked the fact that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was introduced by the British and not the Indian people, over 153 years ago. It is to be noted that Britain decriminalised homosexuality 46 years ago, in 1967, the statement said.
The government of India, it pointed out, had refused to appeal the decision of the Delhi High Court in Naz Foundation v. NCT of Delhi in 2009, and urged the Supreme Court to consider changing values of society as opposed to Victorian notions of morality.

Bollywood actor Shayan Munshi, who is facing prosecution for allegedly turning hostile in Jessica Lall murder case, has been granted bail by a Delhi court which fixed the matter for February 5 for hearing arguments on the framing of charge.
Munshi, who had appeared before the court in pursuance to a summon issued against him, moved the bail plea which was allowed by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidya Prakash on the ground that the offence alleged against him was bailable.
"The present complaint under section 195 CrPC read with section 340 CrPC has been filed against the accused in respect of offence under section 193 (giving or fabricating false evidence in a judicial proceeding) IPC which is bailable in nature.
"Having regard to the entire facts and circumstances, the accused is admitted to bail on furnishing personal bond in the sum of Rs 50,000 with one surety of like amount....," the court said.
It also imposed several conditions on Munshi, saying he would regularly attend the hearings and shall not influence witnesses or tamper with the records in any manner and would inform it before leaving India.
Meanwhile, another accused Prem Manocha, who was then working as a ballistic expert, also appeared before the court in connection with the case and his counsel placed on record the certified copy of September 20, 2013 order passed by the Supreme Court by which proceedings against him have been stayed.
The court adjourned the proceedings against Manocha till February 5, next year. Munshi, who was led as primary witness of prosecution the Jessica murder case, and Manocha are accused of lying on oath during trial before the sessions court and introducing the "two-gun theory", which was the primary defence taken by the convicts.
The Delhi High Court registrar had filed two separate complaints against them in September after the high court had passed an order on March 22 directing their prosecution for perjury.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which on Monday staked claim to form the government in the national capital, will meet today finalise its Cabinet.
The key figures in his Cabinet could include Manish Sisodia representing Patparganj constituency, Somnath Bharti from Malviya Nagar constituency, Rakhi Birla from Mangolpuri constituency.
Saurabh Bhardwaj from Greater Kailash constituency and Vinod Kumar Binny from Laxmi Nagar constituency are also likely to be part of Arvind Kejriwal's Cabinet.
On Monday, Kejriwal met Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung and staked a claim to form the next government in Delhi with Congress' support.
"I have handed over the letter to the Lt. Governor stating that we are ready to form a government in Delhi," Kejriwal told media here.

I am writing this as an ordinary law abiding resident of a law enforcing country like Canada where I reside now or USA, where I have resided earlier. And before I am labelled a deserter and an alien, I must mention that I am still an Indian national and have lived in India for close to thirty- eight years of my forty-five plus years of existence and consider myself fairly attached to India and its ethos.
Who is raising the heat in the Devyani Khobragade issue? The administrators, the politicians, the celebrities, the elite of India, the ones who are used to being treated as demi-gods, VIPs, kings, queens ... by the ordinary Indians like us.
To be in their company, to get a photograph clicked with them which can be posted with pride on Facebook or kept for record as family treasure, is any Indian's dream. And so, when these people demand and get special privileges at all places they go to, we accept that as a part and parcel of their status and never in our wildest dreams question them for that.

More trouble is brewing for retired Supreme Court judge AK Ganguly as the law intern who accused him of sexually harassing her is likely to file a police complaint against him. Justice Ganguly had claimed innocence in his letter to the Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam saying his version of the story was not heard.
The intern said that as National Law School of India University does not have a policy against sexual harassment during internship, filing complaint was the only route. She said, "As the University did not have a policy against sexual harassment of women students during internship, it was indicated to me that any action would be ineffective. I was also informed that the only route for me was to file a complaint with the police, which I was reluctant to do."
ALSO SEE Sexual harassment: Law intern slams AK Ganguly for claiming innocence
The intern added that she authorised Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising to make her statement public. "Even after the operative portion of the report of the Committee, was made public, many eminent citizens and legal luminaries continued to deride the Committee's findings, and malign me. To preserve my own dignity as well as that of the Supreme Court, I authorised Additional Solicitor General of India Indira Jaising to make my statement public," she said.
"I request that it be acknowledged that I have the discernment to pursue appropriate proceedings at appropriate times. I ask that my autonomy be respected fully."

National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden said his “mission’s already accomplished” after leaking NSA secrets that have caused a reassessment of U.S. surveillance policies
Snowden told The Washington Post in an interview published online Monday night that he was satisfied because journalists have been able to tell the story of the government’s collection of bulk Internet and phone records, an activity that has grown dramatically in the decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, who will take oath as Delhi's chief minister Dec 28, appealed to all honest officers Thursday to approach him via SMS, emails and letters.
"We would give such officers good position in our government, and take their help to make strategies," Kejriwal told reporters after addressing a Janata Darbar at AAP's office in Kaushambi, in neighbouring Ghaziabad.
Adding that he would solve their problems at the earliest, Kejriwal said: "I also appeal to those honest officers (to contact me) who have been suspended, and their pension, medical and other dues have not been cleared so far."
On sending an invitation to social activist Anna Hazare for the oath-taking ceremony Saturday, Kejriwal said he would personally talk to him over the phone and invite him.
He said he would announce his cabinet's portfolios within the next two days.

BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's march to Delhi faces a big test on Thursday when a court in Ahmedabad will pronounce its order on Zakia Jafri's petition against the closure report of Special Investigation Team (SIT) which gave a clean chit to the Gujarat Chief Minister in connection with the 2002 post-Godhra riots case.
Zakia Jafri is the wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was among 69 people killed in the Gulberg Society massacre in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.
In her petition, Jafri contends that Gulberg massacre was cold-blooded conspiracy by Modi and others to facilitate state-wide communal violence.

Mumbai, Dec 26:
The Sensex and the Nifty were trading up by about 0.2 per cent in the afternoon session on Thursday due to covering-up of pending short positions in view of expiry of December month F&O contracts.
At 1.12 p.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 36.28 points or 0.17 per cent at 21,068.99 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 13.3 points or 0.21 per cent at 6,281.70.
All BSE sectoral indices were trading in the green. Among them, power, consumer durables, capital goods and metal sector stocks remained investors' favourite and were up 1.54 per cent, 0.88 per cent, 0.85 per cent and 0.77 per cent.
Tata Power, ONGC, NTPC, Sun Pharma and Bharti Airtel were the top five Sensex gainers, while the top five losers were Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, RIL, Dr Reddy's and Maruti.
Asian stocks rose, with the regional benchmark poised for its longest winning streak in three months, led by Japanese stocks as the Topix index rose to a five-year high after the yen fell.
Japan's Nikkei index was up 1.03 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index up 1.13 per cent and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 0.67 per cent.

New York, Dec 25 (PTI) Devyani Khobragade's lawyer has said authorities here goofed up in the probe and arrest of the Indian diplomat on visa fraud charges as a federal agent made a "serious" mistake in reading the paperwork submitted regarding her maid's salary.
Daniel Arshack, Khobragade's lawyer, said Mark Smith, the Diplomatic Security Services agent handled the investigation and arrest of Khobragade and drew up and swore to the accuracy of the formal complaint in the case.

Poor performance of the economy during 2013 derailed Planning Commission's ambitious growth target of 8 percent for the 12th Plan, which the nation's official think-tank will revise downwards in the new year as part of its mid-term review exercise. Attributing lower-than-expected growth to global factors, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said 12th Plan's growth target could be lowered to around 7.5 percent. "In the 12th Plan for the first time, upper-end performance was going to be around 8 percent average in a year but since then global economy has done much worse. "So, today 8 per cent is bit on the high side. The possibility for next five years I feel is 7.5 percent which is not impossible," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said. Also Read: Why a new government may not boost India’s reform prospects During the first year of the 12th Plan, India's economy grew by only 5 percent, the slowest in a decade.In the first half (April-September) of the current fiscal FY2013-14, the economy grew by just 4.6 percent. The Planning Commission will conduct the mid-term review of the 12th Five Year Plan by the end of 2014, for which the preparatory work has started already, Ahluwalia said. "The 12th Plan has set a target of 8 percent growth over the five year period 2012-13 to 2016-17. With a growth of only 5 percent in the first year and perhaps 6.5 percent in the second, it will require a very sharp acceleration in the later years to achieve an average of 8 percent over the entire Plan period," the Commission said in its 12th Plan document.

NEW DELHI: India has discussed the case of molestation allegedly involving a Bahraini diplomat in Mumbai with his government, which has given the assurance of looking into his conduct after his return to the home country shortly on completion of tenure.
The diplomat Mohammed Abdulaziz Al Khaja was booked in Mumbai earlier this week for allegedly molesting the woman manager of his housing society but was not arrested due to the diplomatic immunity enjoyed by him.

The long standing dream of opening a bank under the Tata banner was sacrificed for the larger good under the leadership of Cyrus Mistry.
It is not usual business for India’s central bank to grant new banking licences. After years of contemplation, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had finally opened the floodgates to corporate houses in 2013. The final guidelines for new bank licences in February were issued by RBI and the last date for application was July 1. Tata Sons, along with 25 other banking hopefuls submitted their applications to RBI. This was, however, about a month after RBI issued clarifications on the final norms. The RBI had received 443 queries from 34 individuals and organizations.
“The clarifications came very close to the deadline of applications. While Tata Sons submitted the application on July 1, they wanted to run a check with all other group companies to be sure about the banking model,” said an industry expert. Above 60% of the group’s business came from overseas and there were times when the operating companies need to provide financing solutions to their customers. “Since all financing companies in the group need to be under the NOFHC, or Non-Operative Financial Holding Company, there could be situations wherein a given country is not a priority for the proposed bank or NOFHC but extremely important for an operating company,” said Tata’s in a statement.
As a result, the application was pulled back in November, almost five months after the submission deadline. However, the back door has been kept open.

Rupsona’s kidnappers struck at dusk, when most children in her village in eastern India were outside playing and their parents were resting after tending crops all day. The 14-year-old student had just finished geography class and was walking home along a road lined with rice paddies when she felt a blade at her throat.
The man holding the eight-inch knife and his two accomplices were clear: If Rupsona didn’t quietly climb into a nearby car, they would slit her throat. When the door closed, she was beaten, groped and forced to swallow pills that made her woozy. Two car rides and a train trip later, she and her captors arrived at her final destination: the town of Kaithal, almost a thousand miles from her home. A man was waiting for her. He told her that his name was Sandeep Malik and that she was his wife.
Later she would learn he’d paid $800 to have her abducted. On her first night in captivity, Rupsona said, Malik forced her to have sex again and again. The nightly abuse continued for fourteen months, until she escaped.
Related: Preschool Rape Case Plunges Family Into Indian Nightmare
“Everyone knows he had sex with me, so I will never be able to get married again,” said Rupsona, sobbing as she described her ordeal. “I am like a cracked egg.”

Yes, you heard it right! Hrithik Roshan, who has separated from his thirteen year long wife Sussanne 'MIGHT' marry in 2015. This is as per the predictions of world renowned astrologer Bejan Daruwala. Also Read: Hrithik-Sussanne Split: What Really Happened? Well, we cannot be sure, but according to predictions by Bejan Daruwala, Hrithik Roshan is likely to enter marital bliss once again. If we were to go by the astrologers claim, Hrithik will find happiness soon.. as far as personal life is concerned.

New Delhi: A bitter war of words ensued between country's two main political parties – Congress and the BJP - minutes after the Centre on Thursday ordered the setting up of an inquiry commission to probe allegations of snooping against the Gujarat government led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
While the Congress defended the Centre' move and said that the alleged spying on a woman officer by the Gujarat government was a gross violation of Indian Telegraph Act and the IT Act, the main opposition party termed it as a politically motivated move.
One by one, all top BJP central leaders slammed the UPA government's decision to set up a commission of inquiry into the alleged snooping on a young woman by the Gujarat Police and said it was "political vindictiveness" against its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
"The centre's decision to institute a fresh inquiry into the alleged snooping case is an attempt to tarnish the image of the Gujarat government. It is a step against the federal structure of our constitution. When the state government had already ordered a probe, what was the point behind setting up a new commission of inquiry," BJP chief Rajnath Singh said.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said the decision would be challenged in court.
"The Gujarat government has already set up a commission of inquiry… The setting up of a parallel commission by the central government ostensibly on the pretext of this issue covering more than one state is without basis… I am sure it can be legally challenged," he said.

Salman Khan, who is popular with all age groups, is truly a people's person. He is a hero for the masses and inspires his fans. He involves his fans while promoting his films, interacts with them and that's what makes him one of the most wanted Khans. People can connect to him and his style and his attitude has charmed one and all.

Days after pulling up ‘non-performing’ ministers, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday took away the cream of portfolios -industries and commerce – from Partha Chatterjee – considered Number Two in the cabinet so far – and handed it to finance minister and former corporate lobbyist Amit Mitra. Chatterjee, the Trinamool Congress secretary general, will now be left with parliamentary affairs, IT and the electronics departments.
The ministerial reshuffle, which saw two new faces inducted, comes nearly a week after Banerjee, in a closed-door meeting, expressed deep anguish over the poor performance of several of her ministers and bureaucrats. Binay Krishna Burman, a lawmaker from Mathabhanga in north Bengal’s Cooch Behar district, is the new forest minister, replacing Hiten Burman, who stepped down citing health issues and illness.
However, political circles feel Hiten Burman got the stick for ‘non-performance.’ Sashi Panja, legislator from Kolkata’s Shyampukur, was sworn-in by Governor M K Narayanan as minister with independent charge and allotted the women and child welfare portfolio, so long held by Sabitri Mitra – another minister who failed to satisfy Banerjee.
Mitra is now left with only social welfare portfolio. Panja was working as parliamentary secretary till now.
The minister of state for cottage and small scale industry, Swapan Debnath, was promoted as a minister with independent charge. He will continue to hold the same charge, besides animal husbandry that was snatched from another ‘poor performer’, Noor Alam Chowdhury.

Briefing the media about the findings by the appointed committee to probe into the raging controversy of children's deaths in the relief camps for Muzaffarnagar riot victims, Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary for Home Anil Gupta said that people do not die of cold.
"Children have died of pneumonia, not of cold. Nobody can die of cold. If people died of cold, nobody would have been alive in Siberia," Gupta said
This came after the fact-finding committee submitted their report. The Uttar Pradesh government has admitted for the first time that 34 children below the age of 15 died in the aftermath of the clashes.
The government's fact-finding committee, however, says of the 34 child deaths between September 7 and December 20, only 10-12 took place in relief camps of which four were due to pneumonia. The rest died at private or government hospitals where their parents took them, it said.
Gupta said 4,783 people were still living in five camps including one in Loi in Muzaffarnagar district and another four at Madarsa Taimul Shah, Malakpur, Barnavi and Edgah in Shamli district. He said most of the children who lost their lives were the ones who had been taken outside the camps for treatment by their parents or were referred to government hospitals, Gupta said. "The cause of the death of all these children was different. Four of them died of pneumonia while some breathed their last due to dysentery. One infant died due to premature birth," Gupta added.
Initially the state government had denied any deaths at any of the camps in Muzaffarnagar and had even submitted an affidavit before the Supreme Court with similar claims. However, following sustained media campaigns, the court asked the UP government to verify the facts. Thereafter, the state government formed a panel on December 13, 2013 to look into the specifics. The committee was headed by the Commissioner, Meerut Division, Manjit Singh. The district magistrates and chief medical officers of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli were nominated as its members. The committee initially confirmed the death of 11 children. The same committee has now confirmed that 34 children had died at the camps.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today warned her arch-rival and BNP chief Khaleda Zia that she will be held one day for unleashing terrorism and killing people in the name of anti-government protests. "We believe in justice, the opposition leader will be charged for giving orders for killing and burning people to death in the name of movement and Inshallah (God willing), her trial would be held on Bangladesh soil to this end, and we will hold this trial," she said.
Hasina told a rally at her hometown in western Gopalganj that Zia would be held "one day in Bangladesh" for unleashing terrorism and militancy in the country.
Commenting upon an anti-government rally called by the BNP in Dhaka on December 29, the Awami League President said Zia has planned the march on her day of defeat. "Khaleda Zia has called the rally in Dhaka on the day when the people of Bangladesh had voted the Awami League to power decisively," Hasina, the Awami League President, said while addressing a rally at Faridpur.
The Awami League came to power by defeating the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in the ninth parliamentary election on December 29 in 2008.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today warned her arch-rival and BNP chief Khaleda Zia that she will be held one day for unleashing terrorism and killing people in the name of anti-government protests. "We believe in justice, the opposition leader will be charged for giving orders for killing and burning people to death in the name of movement and Inshallah (God willing), her trial would be held on Bangladesh soil to this end, and we will hold this trial," she said.
Hasina told a rally at her hometown in western Gopalganj that Zia would be held "one day in Bangladesh" for unleashing terrorism and militancy in the country.
Commenting upon an anti-government rally called by the BNP in Dhaka on December 29, the Awami League President said Zia has planned the march on her day of defeat. "Khaleda Zia has called the rally in Dhaka on the day when the people of Bangladesh had voted the Awami League to power decisively," Hasina, the Awami League President, said while addressing a rally at Faridpur.
The Awami League came to power by defeating the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in the ninth parliamentary election on December 29 in 2008.

As Bigg Boss 7 comes to an end, everyone is speculating over the name of the winner from the four finalists — Gauahar Khan, Sangram Singh, Ejaz Khan and Tanishaa. But if sources are to be believed the winner has already been decided. Says a source, “Apparently, Gauahar has been getting the highest number of votes — over a lakh — despite being a loud mouth and not very popular with the inmates. She has a clear edge over the rest.
Sangram, who enjoyed a squeaky clean image till now, suddenly is being portrayed in a negative light with two fights this week — one with Ejaz and another with his friend Andy.” Meanwhile, there are also rumours over how she is garnering so many votes. Adds the source, “There’s also a buzz that one of her wealthy ex-boyfriends is helping her from outside to garner such huge number of votes.” The reality show is not new to controversies which add to its high TRPs, and with such stories doing the rounds, one may wonder if this is just another way to attract more eyeballs.

The Indian rupee on Friday strengthened past the 62 per dollar level but soon slipped slightly as month-end dollar demand from oil importers pushed the Indian currency down.
After opening at 61.97 per dollar, the rupee trimmed some of its gains to trade at 62.04, up 0.21% from its previous close of 62.16. India’s equity benchmark BSE Sensex was trading at 21,114.49 points, up 0.19%.
Higher Asian currencies and gains in the domestic share market are likely to restrict losses in the rupee.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 80.311, down 0.21% from its previous close of 80.484.
The yield on India’s 10-year benchmark bond was trading at 8.886%, compared with its Thursday’s close of 8.891%.
Traders are also cautious ahead of a report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) due by the end of the month that is expected to unveil a major change in monetary policy to explicitly make managing consumer inflation, rather than wholesale prices, its main objective.

Tanisha Mukherjee jumped with joy when she received cakes and bunch of lilies from her rumoured boyfriend Armaan Kohli on the occasion of Christmas. Tanisha hardly receives gifts from her family but her joy knew no bounds when she received gifts from Armaan who stood by her in good and bad days and she too stood as a strong pillar as long as Armaan was inside the house.
Elli Avram dressed as Santa entered the house with gifts for the four finalists. Elli was warmly welcome by the contestants and before leaving the house she had dinner with her friends and Tanisha thanked her immensely. She handed over the bunch of lilies to Tanisha saying that it was sent to her by Armaan and informed her that there was another surprise waiting for her at the bonus room and overjoyed Tanisha run to the bonus room and found a large cake which was also send by Armaan Kohli.
Apart from all this, Tanisha received a hamper full of goodies and chocolates. Sangram Singh got a memento from his girlfriend Payal Rohatgi and a card with personalised messages to each inmate.
Gauhar Khan moved into tears when she received a photo frame from her mother, where as Ajaz Khan jumped with joy to receive his favourite food item - nihari - prepared by his mother.
All the finalists enjoyed Christmas in Bigg Boss 7 house. The grand finale will be aired on Saturday on Colors.

Karan Singh Grover who is playing the male lead in Zee TV’s popular show, ‘Qubool Hai’ was asked to leave the show for his “unprofessional behaviour”. The 31-year-old actor is not committed to his work and creating problems for others due to his unprofessional attitude.
Karan who essays the role of Asad Ahmed Khan gained popularity with 'Dill Mill Gaye' and reality shows like 'Jhalak Dikhla Ja' and 'Khataron Ke Khiladi'.
"Unprofessional behaviour will always be accorded with strict disciplinary action," said Ajay Bhalwankar, content head, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited.
"Actors should not take things lightly when they agree to be a part of a show as their erratic behaviour can affect the livelihoods of many others who are working on it. No actor can hold shoots or dictate their terms and conditions to an extent that it hampers the show," he added.
Karan's replacement will be announced by the channel soon.
"We have initiated legal action and will announce his replacement soon," Bhalwankar said.
‘Qubool Hai’ revolves around two Muslim families and deals with their emotional ups and downs in their lives. It went on air on Zee TV in October 2012.

Samsung already has a number of phones in the market and soon joining this list will be the Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 which will be available for purchase sometime in January. However, at the moment the company has not revealed the price, but it is expected to be priced under Rs 25,000.
This Samsung smartphone is the successor to the Galaxy Grand which has already been a hit in the Indian market. The Galaxy Grand 2 has some significant improvements over its predecessor.
The faux leather back which was introduced with the Galaxy Note 3 will be present on the Galaxy Grand 2 as well. Apart from the new design this upgraded smartphone also features improvements in regards to the hardware.
The Galaxy Grand 2 features a 5.25-inch 720p resolution display and it supports Samsung’s Multi-Window feature which makes multitasking a little more convenient on devices with big displays. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor which is clocked at 1.2GHz and includes 1.5GB of RAM.

Samsung already has a number of phones in the market and soon joining this list will be the Samsung Galaxy Grand 2 which will be available for purchase sometime in January. However, at the moment the company has not revealed the price, but it is expected to be priced under Rs 25,000.
This Samsung smartphone is the successor to the Galaxy Grand which has already been a hit in the Indian market. The Galaxy Grand 2 has some significant improvements over its predecessor.
The faux leather back which was introduced with the Galaxy Note 3 will be present on the Galaxy Grand 2 as well. Apart from the new design this upgraded smartphone also features improvements in regards to the hardware.
The Galaxy Grand 2 features a 5.25-inch 720p resolution display and it supports Samsung’s Multi-Window feature which makes multitasking a little more convenient on devices with big displays. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor which is clocked at 1.2GHz and includes 1.5GB of RAM.

New Delhi: 12:17 pm: "We have come out to clean the politics. This is a miracle. I want to thank God for the success of our revolution," Kejriwal said.
12:16 pm: "We have showed people that we can fight elections with honesty and can win too," Kejriwal said.
ALSO SEE Ramlila Maidan ready to host Arvind Kejriwal's swearing-in
12:15 pm: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal begins his first address by greeting the crowd with 'Inquilab Zindabad'.

As many as 26 people, including two children, are feared dead, and 15 others injured after a fire broke out in a bogie of the Nanded-Bangalore Express in Anantapuram district of Andhra Pradesh today.
The mishap took place near the Kothacheruvu railway station in Anantapur district bordering Karnataka at around 3.30am. Passengers told TV channels they were sleeping when somebody noticed smoke in the B1 AC coach and pulled the emergency chain to stop the train.
Passengers then climbed out of the train when it was still dark and the coach was on fire. According to rescue workers and TV channels, 15 injured passengers were being treated in hospitals in Dharmavaram, Puttaparthi and Anantapur.
CS Gupta, a spokesperson for South Western Railways, confirmed 15 deaths and said casualties could rise. Gupta said most passengers seemed to have choked to death in the smoke that engulfed the coach.

Veteran actor Farooq Sheikh died after suffering a heart attack in Dubai. He was 65. "He has passed away," a family member said, without disclosing any further details. The actor was in Dubai apparently for a concert when he suffered the heart attack on late Friday night.
Farooq's body will be brought to Mumbai later in the day after completing the formalities in Dubai.
Born on March 25, 1948, Sheikh made a tremendous contribution in theatre, films and TV as well. He started his career in Bollywood in 1973 with Garm Hava and is best remembered for his performances in films like Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Chashme Buddoor, Kissi Se Na Kehna, Noorie.
His last film was Club 60 and before that he was seen playing the role of a father to Ranbir Kapoor in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.

Priced at Rs.7,600, the Intex Aqua i4+ tries hard to give consumers a combination of decent hardware and software at much desired budget.
Since, Intex is not the sole player who has come with a budget Android phone with maiden specifications. Of course the retail price sounds interesting, but what about competition. Micromax, India's second largest smartphone vendor, also announced a budget Android phone, the Canvas Juice A77 in India. To be made available across the country, the affordable phone offers really long battery life (3000mAh). The Canvas Juice A77 retails for Rs.7,999, and most importantly its long lasting battery life might have tempted you to consider the device over Intex Aqua 4i+. But, before taking a final call, make sure you read out the internal specifications of Intex Aqua 4i+. The Intex Aqua i4+ features a 5 inch FWVGA display having a resolution of 854x480 pixels. The phone incorporates a 1.2GHz dual-core processor coupled with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal memory, which can be expanded via a micro SD card slot. Android Jelly Bean OS 4.2.2 comes out of the box. The makers behind Intex Aqua i7 have added an 8MP image sensor on the rear camera with added Auto Focus and LED.

Gone are the times when the actresses used to be mere arm-candies, props, or the hero's squeeze. 2013 marked a watershed moment for Indian cinema and several Bollywood actresses became a name to reckon with. A special mention for Deepika Padukone here; the actress has acquired a Salman Khan-like superstar status. Read on.
Bollywood is a man's world, they say. But female screen scorchers like Deepika Padukone and Sonakshi Sinha surprised the audiences and critics with their performances this year, while others like Nimrat Kaur and Huma Qureshi impressed with their finesse in non-commercial outings.
IANS takes a look (in alphabetical order of name) at the women who impressed with their choice of roles in tinsel town in 2013:

Actor Raqesh Vashisth has replaced Karan Singh Grover on popular TV show 'Qubool Hai'. He will now portray the character of Asad.
The actor is excited to be a part of the show and is hoping that he will be able to make a place in the hearts of the viewers soon.
"It's homecoming for me as my debut on television happened with 'Saat Phere' on Zee TV. 'Qubool Hai' is a hugely popular show and Asad is an enormously popular character. I'm happy that the creative team thought that I would be appropriate for the role," Raqesh said in a statement.

51-year-old Australian, who has been suffering from OCD for nearly four decades, underwent a psychiatric surgery at Jaslok Hospital
It's tough not to notice the patchy skin on Rodney King's hands as he extends a greeting at his Jaslok Hospital room. They are his battle scars — the result of years of panic-washing his hands with methylated spirits to make sure they are clean. That's a chemical that technicians usually use to scrub the stubborn grime off glass and marble.
The 51-year-old Australian citizen, diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), recently underwent a psychiatric surgery at the Peddar Road hospital to cure him of the disorder.
An uphill battle
Psychiatrist Dr Yusuf Matcheswalla says OCD, an anxiety disorder characterised by obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions such as cleaning, checking on things repeatedly, counting or hoarding, is a potentially disabling condition. "The patient is trapped in a pattern of repetitive thoughts and behaviours that are senseless and distressing, but extremely difficult to overcome." Between two to five per cent of the world's population suffers from it, and only a handful of these cases worsen into treatment resistant ones.
For King, it did, and that meant that he'd constantly worry about contamination from germs. "I'd spend hours every day washing my hands, wiping door handles, and even the insides of my wallet, often having to dry currency later," he remembers, as his 80-year-old mother Evis, who accompanied him from Gosford, looks on.
"When I'd step out of the house to get to work, my eyes would be fixed on the rear view mirror. Even on an empty road, I'd turn the car to see if I'd hit someone."
Psychiatrists say most OCD cases are triggered by traumatic events. Evis recalls first citing symptoms when King was 13. "It was soon after a car crash in which his elder brother died. He, who was also in the car, blamed himself for his brother's death. He began obsessing about death, would want to stop at cemeteries and often imagined gravestones around him," Evis says.

The Indian Government has reportedly sought details about staff in American schools in the country for possible tax violations and revoked ID cards of US consular officials and their families, retaliatory steps for the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York.
The measures suggest that the diplomatic row over the treatment of Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade earlier this month on charges of visa fraud and underpayment of her housekeeper is far from over.
Khobragade, who has denied the charges, was handcuffed and strip-searched while in custody, sparking outrage in India.
Media reports quoted an Indian government official, as saying on Friday that New Delhi had asked the US embassy to provide details about people working in American schools and other US government facilities to determine if they had permission to do so and if they were paying taxes that are mandatory under Indian law.

Hundred crore seem to be hot favourite words for Bollywood. Producers have been chasing them for some years now, both for business and popularity. Unfortunately, in this case the figure fails to sketch a happy picture.
If the grapevine in the industry is to be believed, Sussanne Roshan has asked for Rs 100 crore as settlement for a divorce with husband Hrithik. Says an insider, “Sussanne has asked for an amount as alimony. She feels that she has given some of her best years to Hrithik and his family and Rs 100 crore is not a huge amount. Also, part of it will be used for their children’s education and upbringing.
Negotiations are currently on between their lawyers. Time will tell what she receives.”
On December 13, Hrithik had sent out a statement saying that Sussanne had decided to separate from him and end their 17-year relationship.

This year in entertainment television led to me being called a Congress agent, paedophile, paid media and a fool. Often at the same time. That would lead you to think there were some great sparkling moments on the telly, right? Otherwise why would people be moved to such passion by some innocent reviews? Here’s what made the idiot box a winner in the idiot stakes. 1.Anil Kapoor showed us that it is he, not Devyani Khobragade, who the Americans will remember India for. If anyone has bridged the great divide it is our very own ‘One-Two-Ka-Four’ man. Kapoor brought 24 to Indian shores and so resurrected the careers of many an Indian actor with the promise that even appearing for 10 minutes on the Indian 24 was better than whatever it is that they were doing at the time. An English show, after all, means good publicity.

BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi would address a public gathering at Sujanpur here on February 16, next year.
BJP is poised to win all four Lok Sabha seats of the state, former Chief Minister P K Dhumal said while addressing party workers at Khaggal village here.
During the election campaign and the Modi rally, BJP will highlight the failures and poor decisions of UPA government, Dhumal said.
The BJP leader accused Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of targeting him and his family for "media publicity".
Dhumal said that during the poll campaign, the state unit of BJP would inform people about the "failures" of the Congress government in the state.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday fall sick and expresed his unhappiness over not being able to attend the office and announce the big decision of providing free water to the Delhiites.
The newly elected CM, who is considered to be active on social media today tweeted: "It was so imp to attend office today. We had planned the water announcement. God, bahut galat time par bimaar kiya."
The 45-year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader further said that he has 102 degree fever and having loose motions since yesterday and thus won't be able to attend office today.

The condition of legendary actress Suchitra Sen, hospitalised after a respiratory infection, deteriorated today.
She complained of breathlessness on Sunday evening after which she was shifted to the Coronary Care Unit of a super-speciality hospital where she was admitted on December 23.
A source at the Belle Vue Clinic told PTI that her condition was serious and there was fluid accumulation in her lungs.
The 82-year-old actress, who lives a secluded life, was admitted to the hospital on Monday last after she developed respiratory problem.
The clinic has formed a five-member-committee to monitor the health of the patient. Sources said Sen also has diabetes which has compounded
the problem.

India's unusually tough stand on the arrest of its diplomat Devyani Khobragade has forced the US to initiate an "inter-agency review" to look into the lapses that happened in the high-profile case that triggered an uproar in India and strained bilateral ties. The US departments involved in the review include the National Security Council of the White House, the State Department and the Justice Department.
"An inter-agency review is going on right now to look into the lapses that happened in the case," sources told a news agency.
In a tacit acknowledgement of the fact that there was a "judgemental error" in handling this case, sources said the inter-agency team led by the State Department is "working 24x7" to get it resolved as quickly as possible.
Now that the matter has landed up in the judiciary, a lot depends on the judges too - for which the Department of Justice and the Southern District of New York is being actively engaged.
It is believed that the Department of Defence has expressed its displeasure over the manner in which the entire issue was handled.
At a time, when the Pentagon is busy reviewing its policy towards Asia Pacific region wherein India fits as a major player in its scheme of things and is eyeing to have a large pie in the modernisation programme of the Indian armed forces, the last thing it would like to see is any strain in its ties with New Delhi, officials said.

Model-turned-actress Gauhar Khan on Saturday (December 28, 2013) won the seventh season of Bigg Boss and took home the prize money of Rs 50 lakh and the trophy. She said now her aim is to attain superstardom in showbiz.
Gauhar, seen in films like Game and Ishaqzaade, wishes to gain superstardom after the show.
"I wish this platform helps me gain superstardom. There is a very different feeling when people start calling you a superstar. And that's what I want," Gauhar told IANS.
The grand finale was held at Lonavala, a hill station near Mumbai, where the Bigg Boss house was put up.
This is the fourth consecutive season that a woman has been crowned the winner after Shweta Tiwari, Juhi Parmar and Urvashi Dholakia winning the fourth, fifth and sixth seasons respectively.
In the final round, the competition was between Gauhar and Tanishaa. And their mothers were at the venue to support them.
Other finalists, who were vying for the title, were Ajaz Khan and wrestler Sangram Singh.

Actress Kareena Kapoor Khan feels her husband Saif Ali Khan shows sparks of brilliance in every film. "I have seen 'Bullett Raja' and I loved it. I will be biased always towards my family. I think Saif was brilliant - I loved him in the film. He is such a fine actor, he is just brilliant. He shows sparks of brilliance in every film he does, whether the film does well or not, he is amazing in the film.
"He has naturally got flair, personality, I think people love his on screen personality," Kareena told PTI. Kareena will be next seen alongside Ajay Devgn in Rohit Shetty's 'Singham 2'. Kareena has worked with Ajay in several films.
"I will start shooting for it in February," she said. There were reports that Kareena would not be doing Hrithik Roshan starrer 'Shuddhi' and Deepika Padkuone has replaced her, but both the producer Karan Johar and director Karan Malhotra rubbished the gossip.

The makers of Dhoom: 3 have found the pot of gold with the fast-paced action thriller. The Hindi box office business of movie has reached Rs 211 crores and looking at its pace, trade pundits predict it will soon cross the benchmark set by Chennai Express, which became the biggest grosser by earning Rs 216 crores.
Also starring Katrina Kaif, Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra, Dhoom: 3 came out on December 20, 2013 on around 4,000 screens in the country. Estimated to be made on a budget of about Rs 100 crore, the film has been produced by Yash Raj Films.
Rajesh Thadani of Multimedia Combines said, "Dhoom: 3 has collected around Rs 211 crores only in Hindi all over India. In other languages, the film has collected around Rs 10 crores."
The overseas collection of director Vijay Krishna Acharya's offering is also overwhelming.
"As far as overseas collection is concerned, the film has almost collected around Rs 100 crores, so in totality Dhoom: 3 has collected over Rs 300 crores, which is terrific in nine days," Rajesh Thadani added.
If Dhoom: 3, the third successful film in the Dhoom franchise, maintains its collection, then it will break the record of Chennai Express, according to Sanjay Ghai of Mukta Arts.

Nokia has launched its new feature phone in India, the Nokia 106 at Rs. 1,399. The new affordable phone from Nokia is now available via the company's online store and is available in three colour variants Black, Red and White. The online site notes that the phone will be delivered in five working days.
Nokia announced the 106 in August this year alongside the Nokia 107 for the Chinese market. The Nokia 106 is available as a single SIM device, with support for a mini-SIM, instead of a regular size

Ten people were killed on Monday in a blast on a trolleybus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, a day after a deadly suicide bombing at the city's main train station, officials said.
"According to initial information, 10 people were killed and 10 were wounded" in the explosion, the spokeswoman of the local branch of the emergencies ministry Irina Gogoleva told the Interfax news agency.
Reports said that the blast was so strong that the trolleybus -- a common form of municipal transport in Russian cities -- was completely destroyed.
Investigators have called the trolleybus blast an 'act of terror'.

the private equity (PE) industry in India, the year 2013 opened up a much-needed window of opportunity for investors straddled with investments bottled up for well over half a decade and a lack of exit options.
PE investors witnessed a spurt in the number of exits during the year that were cumulatively worth over $600 million, despite the subdued state of the primary markets.
The biggest action was concentrated in the healthcare sector, with London-based PE major Apax Partners’ sale of its 19 per cent holding in Apollo Hospitals for close to $370 million in multiple open market transactions marking one of the biggest exits of the year.

Irda's 2010 guidelines for Ulips had capped the charges and made unit-linked plans more customer-friendly. However, the new guidelines for traditional life insurance plans, which were supposed to kick in from 1 October, but will now be effective from 1 January 2014, have not been formulated with quite the same zeal.
The new guidelines ensure a higher surrender value for policyholders, reduce the minimum period and mandate that policies offer a higher life cover. However, Irda has not b ..

Underlining the role of the police and media in protecting children from sexual offences, High Court chief justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta has said that sexual offences against children have shot up in the last 20 years and such offences have to be curbed by creating awareness among the parents to protect their children.
The Andhra Pradesh State Legal Services Authority and the Andhra Pradesh Police Academy (APPA) jointly conducted a sensitisation programme for the stakeholders on Protection of Child from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 at APPA here on Sunday.
Addressing the gathering, justice Sengupta said that elaborate discussions needed to be held on sexual offences on child at schools, rural localities, hospitals to create awareness among the parents and others to prevent such offences. “Media and police have to play a key role in preventing such offences,” the chief justice said but cautioned the media to publish such news after confirming the information whether it is bona fide or not.
Director-general of police B Prasada Rao said that hundreds of children were getting addicted to vices due to neglect by their parents who both worked and spent more time in office than at home. More and more children were losing their parental affection as they were being taken care of by maids and wardens, he said.

Authorities in western China said on Monday that police fatally shot eight terrorists who had attacked them using knives and explosives in the latest in a string of violent incidents in the region.
The Xinjiang government news portal Tianshan Net said that the group of nine attacked officers and burned police cars in Shache county.
A Xinjiang government press officer confirmed the report but said he had no further information.
Tianshan Net said the police took “resolute measures” by shooting the eight and arresting one, adding the case was under further investigation.

Two persons were killed on Sunday as fresh clashes erupted in the Bangladeshi capital between opposition supporters and security forces, who used water cannons and tear gas to foil attempts by BNP activists to conduct a seige of government offices to derail the upcoming January 5 polls.
Around 11,000 policemen patrolled the city as hundreds of demonstrators defied a government ban and took to the streets to stage the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party's "march for democracy".
Authorities have detained over 1,000 opposition activists, trying to gather in the capital, after raiding homes of opposition supporters and trains.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's public disapproval of Maharashtra government junking the Patil Commission report on the Adarsh housing scam, according to insiders, was aimed at reclaiming the moral high-ground on corruption. But it has also left the Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan's vulnerable to his critics —both in Congress and NCP—who have been seeking his removal ahead of elections.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's public disapproval of Maharashtra government junking the Patil Commission report on the Adarsh housing scam, according to insiders, was aimed at reclaiming the moral high-ground on corruption. But it has also left the Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan's vulnerable to his critics —both in Congress and NCP—who have been seeking his removal ahead of elections.
Gandhi's move has also ended up pushing Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Ex-CM ..

The speculation was triggered by the Prime Minister's decision to hold a rare press conference in the capital on January 3, which will only be the third of his current tenure.
In his second term in office, which began in May, 2009, Singh has separately met five editors and a group of TV editors. He has held two full-fledged press conferences during his 10-year tenure.
"The Prime Minister will complete his tenure," the Prime Minister's Office said.
A media report had speculated that Singh may step down ahead of the Lok Sabha polls to make way for Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
There has been a growing clamour within Congress to name Rahul as its prime ministerial candidate, particularly after the reverses suffered by the party in recent assembly elections to Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Senior leader and finance minister P Chidambaram on Monday said Congress should name its prime ministerial candidate for the general elections next year.
"... in my view, the party (Congress) should project a person as the leader of the party who will become prime minister if the party forms the government. That is my view, but it is for the party to decide."
Shedding his reticence in recent days, Rahul has been pro-active and has spoken on a number of issues such as lokpal bill and the Adarsh Housing scam in Mumbai, two issues on which he has made decisive interventions.
Singh has more than once said that Rahul should lead the party and that he was willing to work under the Congress vice-president.

One suspect was reportedly arrested in connection with the brutal attack on Indian student in Australia that had left him with severe injuries.
According to reports, the Indian consulate was said to be in touch with the hospital and kin of the assaulted student.
20-year-old Manrajwinder Singh from Reservoir has been in coma after he was brutally attacked with stick and robbed by a gang on Sunday.
A commerce student, Singh was sitting near the footpath with two other friends when they were approached by eight men, perceived to be of African appearance.
The offenders assaulted Singh by kicking him on the head and hitting him with a stick.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will present Israel and the Palestinians the broad outlines of what a final Mideast peace agreement could look like when he travels to the region this week, the State Department said.
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said on Monday that Kerry will discuss with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a proposed framework to serve as a guideline for addressing all core issues in the decades-long dispute.
The core issues include the borders between Israel and a future Palestine, security arrangements, the fate of Palestinian refugees and conflicting claims to the holy city of Jerusalem.
The two sides resumed peace talks in July under heavy pressure from Kerry. As a precondition, the Palestinians were forced to drop a demand for a halt in construction of new Jewish settlements. In exchange, Israel agreed to release 104 long-serving Palestinian prisoners it has detained for years.

The government on Monday cleared proposals by UK-based retail giant Tesco and telecom company Vodafone to together invest close to Rs 11,000 crore in India, signalling the government's determination to press ahead with FDI even in contentious areas such as multi-brand retail. With clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board in place, Tesco becomes the first MNC to enter multi-brand retail in India.

Slowing growth and rising inflation marked 2013 which the country's economic managers would like to forget quickly in the hope that the new year will bring in new government and some good news.
The growth rate continued to slide throughout the year despite desperate attempts by the government to stem the tide with a host of traditional and innovative measures.
Pangs of inflation, driven mainly by rising prices of essential food items, added to the overall despondency in a year that saw the rupee dipping to its life time low level against the US dollar and the Current Account Deficit (CAD) soaring to historic highs.
Everything began well with the Finance Ministry's Economic Survey in February asserting that the growth rate during 2013-14 would improve to 6.1-6.7 per cent, from decade's low of 5 per cent recorded in the previous fiscal.
The euphoria was short-lived as the government efforts to boost growth have come a cropper with the economy slipping further into the quagmire and key parameters showing no signs of bottoming out.

Bollywood beauty queen Aishwarya Rai Bachchan looked gorgeous in a heavy gold coloured Sabyasachi anarkali as she inaugurated a jewellery store in Dubai recently. The glittery outfit looked rich with the thread work and embroidery that made heads turn. Aishwarya paired the anarkali with a matching gold choker.

Salman Khan among the biggest three didn’t have a single release this year. But still the star managed to stay in the headlines throughout the year as he has been entrapped in legal controversies and he also hosted Bigg Boss 7 for the fourth consecutive year. Since last five years Salman has been the actual ‘Dabangg’ at the box-office with films like Wanted, Dabangg, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger and Dabangg 2. Salman has remained the most unquestionable king of Bollywood, no doubt.
Shah Rukh Khan came back with a bang in 2013 with Rohit Shetty’s Chennai Express which changed the history of the Hindi film industry with the roaring response it received. But Aamir’s Dhoom 3 has surpassed all the records of Chennai Express at the end of 2013. Aamir has done a spectacular job in Dhoom 3 as the antagonist and not only in India but the film is a huge success overseas too. Now we are wondering who can be called the biggest entertainer of 2013, Salman, Shah Rukh or Salman.?

Gold staged a modest rebound on Tuesday after falling more than 1 percent in the previous session, but the precious metal was still heading for its biggest annual decline in more than three decades because investors shifted money to equities.
A drop in exchange-traded funds holdings shows investors lost faith in bullion as a hedge against inflation and an alternative investment after the US Federal Reserve announced plans to trim in its big monthly bond purchases.
Gold rose $3.40 to $1,199.40 an ounce by 0704 GMT, but was set to end this year down around 28 percent. Prices were sharply lower than all-time highs above $1,900 in 2011, when a worsening debt crisis in Europe sparked buying.

In what was probably his last press conference before his second term as Prime Minister ends in a few months from now, Dr Manmohan Singh on Friday defended the UPA government's track record saying that he has done as best as he could and rooted for Rahul Gandhi as the Congress' PM candidate for the Lok Sabha polls.
The Prime Minister also used strong words against BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi saying that his elevation as prime minister would be “disastrous for the country”.
The 81-year-old leader minced no words when he made it clear that he would not seek a third term as prime minister and said that it is for the historians to judge his 10 years as Prime Minister, saying that history would be kinder to him than contemporary media and the opposition parties in Parliament .
The over 75-minute long press conference, his third as PM, was held at the National Media Centre in the national capital.
Will hand over the baton in 2014
"In a few months time, after the general election, I will hand the baton over to a new prime minister," the PM said, adding,"I will not be a candidate for prime ministership if the UPA comes back to power." "I hope it will be a UPA chosen prime minister, and our party will work to that end in the campaign for the general elections,” he said.
"I am confident that the new generation of our leaders will also guide this great nation successfully through the uncharted and uncertain waters of global change," he added.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Nirmal Yadav's plea for stay on proceedings of trial court, which is set to frame charges against her in cash-at-judge's door scam, and pulled her up for adopting delaying tactics.
A bench headed by Justice H L Dattu ticked off the former judge for filing multiple petitions in various courts to delay the trial court proceedings in the 2008 case.
Yadav's counsel submitted that it is a case of no evidence and the trial court should be restrained from framing charges against her but the apex court was not satisfied and dismissed the plea.

RIL and its partners BP plc of UK and Canada's Niko Resources have spud the seventh well on the MA oil and gas field in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in Krishna Godavari basin.
The well, MA-8, is likely to be put on production this month, sources with direct knowledge of the development said.

A section of Delhi's populace on Friday gathered outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Kaushambi residence and asked him to take the security cover offered by the Delhi Police.
Raising slogans like "Jan jan se awaaz hai aayi, surksha le lo Arvind Bhai" (The public are asking you to take security), the protestors said the CM needed to take his security seriously as he was against graft, which will attract the ire of corrupt persons.
"We have come here to request Kejriwal to accept security cover. We have brought letters on which several persons have signed in favour of his taking security. We have handed over the letters to him," Mukesh Kumar, a resident of Sulatanpuri area, said.

The US has said it is focused on moving farward its relationship with India and asserted that the legal procedure against diplomat Devyani Khobragade is separate from the diplomatic process.
“What we’re focused on at the State Department is moving forward with the bilateral relationship,” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf said yesterday.
Harf was responding to questions on India-US relationship in the wake of the arrest of Khobragade on charges of visa fraud and misrepresentation.
“We are focused on moving this relationship forward, working together on all the issues we work together on all the time. That’s certainly what our focus has been here,” she said, adding that Secretary of State John Kerry and other top officials have expressed regret over the incident and they want to move forward.
Harf said the US is still reviewing the paperwork of Khobragade with regard to her transfer to the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations.
“We received it on December 20th. It’s under review. We can’t predict when that review will be complete and can’t compare it to previous requests because each is different and we evaluate each on their own merits,” she said.
“The legal process is separate, so obviously the Department of Justice and the Southern District of New York are handling those discussions. We think it’s important right now for there to be space for these private diplomatic conversations to continue. We obviously are committed to working with the Government of India on a way forward,” Harf said.
A 1999-batch IFS officer, Khobragade, India’s Deputy Consul General in New York, was arrested on charges of making false declarations in a visa application for her maid Sangeeta Richard. She was released on a USD 250,000 bond.
The 39-year-old diplomat was strip searched and held with criminals, triggering a row between the two sides with India retaliating by downgrading privileges of certain category of
US diplomats among other steps last month.

Doctors may need to treat high blood pressure in women more fiercely than they do in men.
In a study, the researchers for the first time found significant differences in the mechanisms that cause high blood pressure in women as compared to men.
"The medical community thought that high blood pressure was the same for both sexes and treatment was based on that premise," said Carlos Ferrario, professor of surgery at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre and lead author of the study.
"This is the first study to consider sex as an element in the selection of anti-hypertensive agents or base the choice of a specific drug on the various factors accounting for the elevation in blood pressure," added Ferrario.
"In fact, heart disease has become the leading cause of death in women in the United States, accounting for approximately a third of all deaths. So why the discrepancy if men and women have been treated in the same way for the same condition?" asked scientists.
In the comparative study, 100 men and women age 53 and older with untreated high blood pressure and no other major diseases were evaluated using an array of specialised tests that indicated whether the heart or the blood vessels were primarily involved in elevating the blood pressure.
The tests measured hemodynamic - the forces involved in the circulation of blood - and hormonal characteristics of the mechanisms involved in the development of high blood pressure in men and women, said the study published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Cardiovascular Disease.
The researchers found 30 to 40 percent more vascular disease in the women compared to the men for the same level of elevated blood pressure.
"We need to evaluate new protocols - what drugs, in what combination and in what dosage - to treat women with high blood pressure," the study concluded.

'Madras Cafe' actor John Abraham has tied the knot with his girlfriend of three years Priya Runchal at a private ceremony in Los Angeles.
The news was confirmed by the actor himself, who in a New Year message on Twitter, added his surname Abraham to Priya.
John Abraham, who was holidaying in the US with Priya, is said to have tied the knot there with only family and close friends in attendance.
John Abraham, who was in a very long relationship with Bipasha Basu for nine years, has talked about his marriage plans in his interviews earlier. He had said he is a very impulsive guy and could get married anytime.
John Abraham met investment banker Priya in 2010 at a common gym where they both trained in Mumbai.
Actress-singer Sophie Choudry took to Twitter to wish the newly weds.
"Congrats John Abraham... Wish you and Priya all the happiness in the world!! God bless... Lots of love."
Balaji CEO, Tanuj Garg, also wished John and Priya. "Congratulations John Abraham! All my best." (With PTI inputs)

Actress Kangana Ranaut, who has won critical as well as audience acclaim for her roles in 'Tanu Weds Manu' and 'Krrish 3', considers herself as a stubborn and difficult person in real life.
Besides her acting skills, Kangana has been in news for her fall out with actors and filmmakers like Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Gupta, Anurag Basu and others.
"I am not a very easy person to be with, I am very stubborn. I have hang ups. I am not one of those people expected to do the expected. But at the same time I have always taken the responsibility of my actions," Kangana Ranaut said in an interview.
"It is not that I am having more friends now than earlier. It is the same people who did not like me and never liked me, and same people who liked me earlier. So nothing has changed, it is all the same," she said.
Recently, superstar Aamir Khan had said on 'Koffee with Karan' that Kangana Ranaut is the sexiest lady in Bollywood.
Earlier, there were reports of their fall out over 'Ghajini' where Kangana Ranaut was likely to play the leading lady in the film. "I did not back out of Ghajini, I was never offered the role. There were some auditions going on and some team had called me for a small part, but later on they had taken someone else. I don't know if the news reached Mr Khan or he was aware about this. It is flattering (on his comment), I
have always liked his working style, he is an intellectual and honest. I look upto him," the actress said.
Kangana Ranaut is looking forward to the release of her film 'Queen', the trailer of which was released recently and got positive response. She plays a Delhi girl who goes to her honeymood in Amsterdam and Paris all alone after things go wrong in her marriage.

Actress Kangana Ranaut, who has won critical as well as audience acclaim for her roles in 'Tanu Weds Manu' and 'Krrish 3', considers herself as a stubborn and difficult person in real life.
Besides her acting skills, Kangana has been in news for her fall out with actors and filmmakers like Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Gupta, Anurag Basu and others.
"I am not a very easy person to be with, I am very stubborn. I have hang ups. I am not one of those people expected to do the expected. But at the same time I have always taken the responsibility of my actions," Kangana Ranaut said in an interview.
"It is not that I am having more friends now than earlier. It is the same people who did not like me and never liked me, and same people who liked me earlier. So nothing has changed, it is all the same," she said.
Recently, superstar Aamir Khan had said on 'Koffee with Karan' that Kangana Ranaut is the sexiest lady in Bollywood.
Earlier, there were reports of their fall out over 'Ghajini' where Kangana Ranaut was likely to play the leading lady in the film. "I did not back out of Ghajini, I was never offered the role. There were some auditions going on and some team had called me for a small part, but later on they had taken someone else. I don't know if the news reached Mr Khan or he was aware about this. It is flattering (on his comment), I
have always liked his working style, he is an intellectual and honest. I look upto him," the actress said.
Kangana Ranaut is looking forward to the release of her film 'Queen', the trailer of which was released recently and got positive response. She plays a Delhi girl who goes to her honeymood in Amsterdam and Paris all alone after things go wrong in her marriage.